- During WWII, she and her family were deported by the Nazis to the Terezin labor camp. Her father and grandparents died there. She and her mother were sent to Auschwitz, and later Bergen-Belsen, where she contracted bubonic plague.
- After the war, she practiced the piano 12 hours a day to make up for lost time, and to strengthen her hands which were injured from heavy work in the camps. She also took up the harpsichord, which became her main instrument.
- Her international breakthrough came in 1956 when she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. The Czechoslovak government allowed her to perform in competitions and concerts around the world because it was a lucrative source of foreign currency for the state. Between 1965 and 1975, she also became the first person to record Bach's complete works for keyboard.
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