Nobody ordinary people invited them here
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Josef Luxemburg was born in Mělník on 26 November 1947. In 1966 he began the undertaking of his mandatory military service in the engineer corps in Terezín. Two years later he finished his service with the rank of sergeant major. One month before his reentrance into civil life, the armies of the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia. He was a witness to events that took place in both the Terezín barracks and in nearby Litoměřice. From the barracks he witnessed the arrival of Soviet tanks and the behavior of Soviet soldiers and officers. Together with other soldiers, he pasted over traffic signage with the intention of confusing the occupying forces, and debated in Litoměřice with Soviet soldiers convinced of the legality of their entrance into the territory of Czechoslovakia. He was a witness also to the changes taking place in the barracks of Terezín themselves, such as the increased monitoring of soldiers, and the stifling of any rebellion and the limiting of their access to their weapons, as well as, meanwhile, the reactions of the officers to the ongoing situation. After his military service he married and moved a few times before finally settling down in the South Bohemian town of Milevsko. He worked in the shipyards of Mělník, where, after completing basic school, he trained as a machine fitter, but also in the forest and at a junkyard. After 1989 he was a member of the local government of Milevsko and worked for ten years as an editor and photographer in Milesvko newspapers, where he focused primarily on local politics. He has had lifelong success with photography. Now he is retired and lives with his wife in Milevsko. He has two grown children.
