Hans Habe

Hans Habe (February 12, 1911, Budapest – September 29, 1977, Locarno) was a Hungarian and American writer and newspaper publisher. From 1941, he held United States citizenship. He was also known by such pseudonyms as Antonio Corte, Frank Richard, Frederick Gert, John Richler, Hans Wolfgang, and '''Alexander Holmes".

Early years
Habe was born as János Békessy in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents, Imre Békessy and Bianca Marton, were of Jewish origin but converted to the Christian (Protestant) faith.

After World War I the family moved to Vienna where his father published one of the first daily tabloids, Die Stunde (The Hour), from 1923-26. János was educated at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium between 1921-29. Afterwards he started to study Law and German Literature at Heidelberg, but returned soon to Vienna due to the rapidly growing extreme anti-Semitism in Germany.

Newspaperman
In 1930 he began to work as a reporter for the Wiener Sonn- und Montagspost (Vienna Sunday and Monday Post). In the following year he became Editor of the Österreichische Abendzeitung (Austrian Evening News), one of the youngest newspaper editors ever, at age 20. Around this time he married his first wife, Margit Bloch.

Early in 1934 he moved to the Wiener Morgen (Vienna Morning News). From 1935 to 1939 he was a Foreign Correspondent for the Prager Tagblatt (Prague Daily News), stationed mostly at Geneva, covering the League of Nations and was present at the Évian Conference in 1938. Habe described the course of the Conference in his novel The Mission (1965).

The focal point of the novel is the infamous offer made by the German government, and transmitted to the Conference by Neumann von Héthárs, to sell the Austrian Jews to foreign countries at a price of $250 per capita, and the Conference delegates' refusal to accept. At this time Habe was married to his second wife, Erika Levy, heiress of the Tungsram light bulb company.

World War II
After the Anschluss, Habe was expatriated and his books forbidden by the new Nazi government. He went into exile in France and joined the French Foreign Legion. In 1940 he was captured and interned in the Dieuze Dulag camp. From there he managed to escape with the help of French friends (to Lisbon) and emigrated to the United States. He became a US citizen in 1941. Here Habe married his third wife, Eleanor Post Hutton, heiress of General Foods, in 1942. They had a son, Anthony Niklas Habe.

In 1942 he was drafted into the US Army and studied Psychological warfare at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland. Then he joined the 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company, and went in March 1943 to North Africa and participated in Operation Avalanche, the landing in Italy.

In 1944 he became an Instructor of Psychological Warfare at Camp Sharpe, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In autumn 1944 he selected a group of German writers and newspaper editors to prepare for the publishing of new newspapers after the war in Germany.

Newspaperman in Germany
In 1945 Habe returned to Germany in the wake of the occupying US Army. By November 1945 he had created 18 newspapers in the American Occupation Zone. Then he became Editor of the Neue Zeitung in Munich. At this time he was married for a short time with actress Ali Ghito. In 1949 he moved to the Münchner Illustrierte (Munich Illustrated), and, in 1951, to the Echo der Woche (Echo of the Week). From 1952-53 he wrote the column Outside America for the Los Angeles Daily News. When the Echo der Woche ceased to appear in 1953, he settled in Ascona, Switzerland, and wrote mostly novels.

Marina Elizabeth Habe
In 1948 he married his fifth wife, actress Eloise Hardt. They had one child together, Marina Elizabeth Habe (February 23, 1951 – December 29, 1968), who was murdered in Los Angeles at age 17. A student at the University of Hawaii home on vacation when she was murdered in Los Angeles while returning home from a date. She was found with contusions in her eyes, slashes to her throat and heart, burned, raped and nude except for a shoe.

Habe was abducted outside the home of her mother in West Hollywood, 8962 Cynthia Avenue. The neighborhood had been the location of a number of rapes in the weeks prior to Habe's murder. A former Manson Family associate said that members of the Family knew her, and it was conjectured she had been one of their victims. Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi recorded that the teenager bled to death.

According to author Ed Sanders, Habe was raped. However, the Los Angeles Times disputed the claim. Survived by both parents, Marina Habe was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City following a requiem mass at Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.

Licci Balla
In 1954, Hans Habe married his sixth and last wife, Hungarian actress and singer Licci Balla.

Prizes

 * 1942 Jerusalem Medaille
 * 1945 Luxembourg War Cross
 * 1972 Theodor-Herzl-Preis
 * 1976 Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz
 * 1977 Konrad-Adenauer-Preis

Works

 * Drei über die Grenze (1936)
 * Eine Welt bricht zusammen (1937)
 * Tödlicher Friede (1939), also published as Zu spät? (1939) and in American edition as Sixteen Days
 * Kathrin oder der verlorene Frühling (1943)
 * Wohin wir gehören (1946)
 * Ob Tausend fallen (1941, A Thousand Shall Fall, about his war experiences in the French Foreign Legion)
 * Walk in Darkness (1948)
 * The Black Earth (1952)
 * Ich stelle mich (1954, autobiography)
 * Off limits (1955); Off limits, English translation by Ewald Osers published in Great Britain by Harrap, London, 1956 with dust-wrapper by George Adamson
 * Im Namen des Teufels (1956) (filmed in 1962 as The Devil's Agent).
 * Die Rote Sichel (1959)
 * Ilona (1960)
 * Die Tarnowska (1962; Countess Tarnovska)
 * Tod in Texas (1964)
 * Die Mission (1965, The Mission (first published in Great Britain by George G. Harrap & Co. Limited, London, 1966)
 * Christoph und sein Vater (1966)
 * Im Jahre Null (1966)
 * Das Netz (1969)
 * Wien, so wie es war (1969)
 * Erfahrungen (1973)
 * Palazzo (1975)
 * Leben für den Journalismus (München : Droemer Knaur, 1976. ISBN 3-426-00430-5)
 * Weg ins Dunkel (1977)
 * Ungarischer Tanz
 * Wie einst David