Gertruda Sekaninová-Čakrtová

Gertruda Sekaninová-Čakrtová, born Stiassny (May 21, 1908 - December 29, 1986) was a Czech and Czechoslovak lawyer, politician and diplomat of Jewish origin, later also a dissident and signatory of the Charter 77. She is most renowned for being one of the four deputies of the who voted against the agreement on the temporary stay of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1968, following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

She was born in 1908 in Budapest (then Austro-Hungarian Empire), as Gertruda Stiassny, to a wealthy Jewish family. She was the eldest of four children. Her parents, Richard and Alžběta Stiassny, moved to Hungary from Bohemia to manage family textile manufacture. Her father died when she was 12 years old. One of her brothers was Josef "Pepek" Stiassny (Joseph "Joe" Stiassny) (1916-1944), who later became known as a guardian and tutor of boys in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where he contributed to the magazine Vedem. In 1910, the family moved back to Havlíčkův (then German) Brod, where Gertrude studied and graduated from gymnasium (1922–27). She continued her studies at the Law Faculty of Charles University in Prague. During her studies she began collaborating with leftist students and worked in various left-wing organizations (Society for the Economic and Social Rapprochement with the USSR, Kostufra, Syndicate of Working Women Intelligence etc.). In 1932, she joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In the same year she graduated and began working as a clerk in the law office of Dr. Ivan Sekanina, whom she married in 1935. In 1938, she passed the bar exam and began practicing law. As an advocate, she took part in the international processes with representatives of the left-wing.

...
Wikipedia