We thought war was coming again in August 1968
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Marie Maitnerová, née Wiederman, was born in 1943 in Šumvald near Uničov as the second of five children to the Wiederman family of farmers. Her parents farmed 13 hectares of land and raised animals. Marie witnessed the liberation of the village by the Red Army at age two, and memories of the deportation of the Germans, which included her father’s cousin, were passed down in the family. When Marie was about to go to high school, her father joined the local farming cooperative (JZD). He worked with horses and later as an inseminator. Mum tended to the animals in the JZD. Marie initially completed a two-year farm school with an economic focus in Mohelnice, then completed her secondary studies remotely while working. She joined the JZD in Šumvald as an accountant and worked there until retirement except for several years (she worked at the JZD Uničov after her maternity leave). She married Zdeněk Maitner, who came from the same village, in 1962. She lived in Šumvald all her life, witnessing the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops and the fall of the regime and the Velvet Revolution. At work, she also came in contact with transcribing of samizdat publications. She and her husband raised five children. In 2025 she lived in a home for the elderly in Šternberk.
