Born Maria Markus in 1924 in Lodz to a middle-class Jewish family, Maria and her older sister, Eugenia, grew up in a cultured home with books, music, and governesses. Most of the pupils at the private high school they attended were Jewish. Maria married Julian Lewitt in 1944 and immigrated to Australia in 1949. In Australia, Maria worked on a poultry farm and as a seamstress and machinist. She also cofounded and operated several businesses including a bakery and milk bar. Maria started volunteering at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in 1996.

Apart from the separation from her beloved family, the greatest grief Maria experienced in migrating was her exile from her native language and literature, which she could not share with her children.