Hans Habe(1911-1977)
- Writer
Janos Bekessy was born in 1911 in Budapest as the son of two converted
Hungarian Jews who moved to Vienna after World War I. His father Imre
Bekessy was one of the most successful newspaper publishers in his day,
and also one of the most controversial, since he was said to use his
editorial powers for blackmailing people - this was one of the reasons
why Janos Bekessy changed his name to Hans Habe. Habe finished school
in Vienna and studied one semester in Heidelberg but after that became
a journalist having major success after 20 years finding out that
Hitler's real family name was 'Schicklgruber' and thus embarrassing the
Nazis. Later he worked for a newspaper in Prague and started writing
novels - a total of 25. When the Nazis came to Vienna in 1938 his
novels were burnt in public and in 1939 Habe joint the French Foreign
Legion in order to fight against Nazi Germany. Getting caught he hid
his Jewish identity and escaped via Vichy-France and Spain to the
United States. Being on Roosevelt's list of anti-Nazi authors he was
given asylum and joined the US-army for D-Day as an anti-Nazi
propaganda officer working with many Jewish, German authors like
'Stefan Heym' and 'Ernst Cramer'. After the fall of the Third Reich the
Americans ordered Habe to found and organize democratic newspapers in
Germany: At the top of his career he led 18 newspapers with a total of
8 million pieces being published (e.g. 'Neue Zeitung').
