Archive of Přemysl Pitter and Olga Fierzová
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Přemysl Pitter

90th anniversary of the opening of Milíč House

On Sunday, December 3, the Milíč House Kindergarten held an event commemorating the 90th anniversary of the opening of Milíč House in Prague, Žižkov. On Christmas Eve 1933, Milíč House was opened as a facility for poor children from Žižkov, who could spend their free time there under the loving supervision of educators from Přemysl Pitter's circle. In 1951, Pitter was forced to emigrate under threat of imprisonment, but Milíč House never ceased to function as a facility for children - first as a weekly day care centre and from 1976 as a kindergarten, which in 2001 returned to its honourable name of Milíč House Kindergarten thanks to the then director Marta Vrabcová.

In her memoir, Nad vřavou nenávisti, Olga Fierz recalls the day of the opening of the Milíč House as follows, "The Milíč House was opened on Sunday morning, December 24, 1933, with a service during which Pitter preached on the text from Joshua 24:15, 'I and my house will serve the Lord.' In the afternoon a Christmas celebration was held to which all the children of the neighbourhood were personally invited - especially those who lived in the huts on either side of the hill."

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