My mother was afraid that history would repeat itself
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Ivana Bergmannová, née Proislová, was born on May 8 1948 in Prague to Marie and Vladimír Proislov. Her parents came from Jindřichův Hradec, from where they fled together soon after the beginning of the Second World War. Her paternal grandfather František Proisl joined the Wehrmacht and forced his son to do the same. František Proisl left his family for Germany and was never seen again. Ivana Bergmann spent her childhood and adolescence in Prague’s Holešovice, where she also entered the first grade of primary school in 1954. In 1967 she graduated from the secondary school of economics. In the same year, she met her future husband Tomáš Bergmann, who was of Jewish origin. She lived through the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in Prague. She and her husband raised two daughters. During the Velvet Revolution, she participated in demonstrations. After 2000 she served as a councillor in Dobříš. In 2024 she lived near Dobříš.
