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NINE JEWS WHO FLED HITLER AND CHANGED THE WORLD AUTHOR OF Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History le ae Ps Ait: i I —_——< . me mrt U.S. $27.00 Can. $34.99 IN THIS GROUND-BREAKING BOOK, acclaimed author Kati Marton brings to life an unknown chapter of World War II: the tale of nine men who grew up in Budapest’s brief Golden Age, then, driven from Hungary by anti-Semitism, fled to the West, especially to the United States, and changed the world. These nine men, each celebrated for individual achievements, were actually part of a unique group who grew up in a time and place that will never come again. It is Marton’s extraordi- nary achievement to trace what for a few dazzling years was common to all of them—the magic air of Budapest—and show how their separate lives and careers were, in fact, all shaped by Budapest’s lively café life before the darkness closed in. Marton follows the astonishing lives of four history-changing scientists, all just one step ahead of Hitler's terror state, who helped usher in the nuclear age and the computer (Edward Teller, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner); two major movie myth-makers (Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca, and Alexander Korda, who pro- duced The Third Man); two immortal photographers (Robert Capa and Andre Kertesz); and one seminal writer (Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon). Marton follows these brilliant products of Budapest’s Golden Age as they flee fascism in the 1920s and 1930s en route to sanctuary—and immortality. As the scientists labor in the secret city of Los Alamos in the race to build the atom bomb, Koestler, once a communist agent imprisoned by Franco, writes the most important anticommunist novel of the century. Capa, the first photographer to go ashore on D-Day, later romances Ingrid Bergman and is acknowledged as the world’s greatest war photographer before his tragic death (continued on back flap) - Digitized by the Internet Archive | in 2012 m n ‘htt ‘//archive.org/details/greatescapeninejOOmart * eo lao a| ai hee‘ ) b plopO BY RA Tel MART R@ N Hidden Power A Death in Jerusalem The Polk Conspiracy An American Woman Wallenberg Katt MARTO® SiUMIOun “6. SC HUIS INE R NEw YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY ae gl NINE JEWS WHO FLED HITLER AND CHANGED THE WORLD 2. SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2006 by Kati Marton All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. stMON & scuusTeER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected] Designed by Karolina Harris Map by Paul Pugliese Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marton, Kati. The great escape : nine Jews who fled Hitler and changed the world / Kati Marton. P. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Jews—Hungary—Budapest—Biography. 2. Jews, Hungarian—United States— Biography. 3. Exiles—Hungary—Budapest—Biography. 4. Exiles—Hungary—Budapest—History— 20th century. I. Title. DS135.H93A153 2006 940.53'180922—de22 {B] 2006049162 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-6115-9 ISBN-10: 0-7432-6115-1 Photo credits will be found on page 272.