I didn’t live my life in vain
Maxmiliána Píšová, also known as Maxa, née Houžvičková, was born on March 1st, 1931 in Prague. In 1936, she moved to Poděbrady with her family, as her father started a small music shop in the town. During the Second World War, large groups of German Hitlerjugend youth were staying in the town, occupying schools and other public buildings. During the Prague uprising, German soldiers stabbed witnesses’ uncle, Antonín Vaněčka, to death at a barricade. Her family welcomed the Red Army, and her parents, influenced by the war events, joined the Communist Party (KSČ). After 1948, family music shop was nationalized by the new Communist government. In the 1960s, Maximilána worked for Čedok travel agency as a guide and he was also a horse-race photographer. During the Prague spring of 1968 she joined the Communist party. In 1970, she was expelled from the Communist party and as a result both she and her husband lost their jobs. In the years to follow they had been persecuted by the regime. Only after 1989 she could again work as a tourist guide and a photographer with no restrictions.