I have never experienced such love again
Download image
Marie Breníková was born on 3 March 1949 in Kladno. She spent her childhood in Ptice, where her parents Jaroslav Breník and Marie Breníková inherited a large farm from her father’s parents after their wedding in the spring of 1945. In the second half of the 1960s, she accidentally learned about her family’s surprising history with the farm. She discovered that during the World War I, Italian displaced people from the Valle di Ledro area of the province of Trento had lived and worked on the farm of her grandparents, František Breník and Miroslava Breníková, née Špačková. In June 1969, Marie Breníková went on holiday to Italy, where she visited the family of Luigi Gentili, who had lived on their farm with his parents and siblings as a child. This visit changed Maria Breníková’s life completely. She has remained in close contact with his family ever since. Later on, other Italians began to visit her in Prague and she helped them to find the families they had lived with during the war. Because of these contacts, Maria Breníková was interrogated by State Security. During the normalisation period she worked in the centre of Prague as a clerk and later as a fire technician. In the 1970s she passed the state exam in Italian and the tour guide exam. She was working as a guide at the time of the recording in 2024.
