Everything has changed
Jana Volfová was born on 16 October 1934 in Úherce near Mladá Boleslav. The family soon moved to Veselá near Mnichovo Hradiště. Her father had a joiner‘s shop there, which became communal property in 1948; her mother was a housewife. Both her parents and her grandparents imbued her with a love for her country and its history - they were avid readers. They gave her a wonderful childhood and were her role models in many aspects of their lives. She especially influenced by her grandfather Václav Řebík - a French Legionnaire. After completing elementary school in Veselá, Jana Volfová attended grammar school in Mladá Boleslav. After graduating she went on to study history and geography at the University of Pedagogy. Before earning her degree she married the Film Academy student Volf, which allowed he to stay in Prague. Although she was qualified to teach at secondary schools, she taught at several primary schools for many years. In the mid-1960s she was accepted to teach at the Academic Grammar School in Štěpánská Street. She appreciates the freedom that reigned in the institution despite the Communist regime, even in the days of encroaching normalisation, thanks to the headmaster, Franěk, a Holocaust survivor. She refused offers to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and to collaborate with State Security. Jana Volfová summarised the results of her studies in short essays depicting famous and less-known figures of Czech history.