Marina Habe’s father, Hans Habe, led an extraordinary life. Like Sharon Tate’s father, Colonel Paul Tate, Habe also worked in military intelligence and received specialized training during World War II. He was part of the Ritchie Boys, an elite unit of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service made up largely of European émigrés who carried out psychological warfare and interrogation operations against the Nazis.
Born on February 12, 1911, in Budapest, Hungary, Hans Habe (birth name János Békessy) grew up in Vienna after his family relocated there during his childhood. He studied in Germany but returned to Vienna to escape the rising tide of antisemitism. Of Jewish descent, Hans found himself increasingly marginalized as the political landscape darkened.
In the 1930s, Habe established himself as a respected newspaper editor. He also authored several books warning of the rising Nazi threat, which were subsequently banned and burned by the Nazi regime after Austria’s annexation. Forced into exile, he fled to France, where he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and rose to the rank of sergeant.
Captured in 1940, Habe endured three months in a prison camp before successfully escaping and ultimately immigrating to the United States. After arriving in America, he authored A Thousand Shall Fall, a book about his wartime experiences in France that sold over 3 million copies in 1941.[1]
Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, Hans was trained in psychological warfare. He was deployed to North Africa in 1943, where he participated in Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Italy. During this time, he was responsible for producing propaganda aimed at demoralizing enemy troops and gathering intelligence through the interrogation of German prisoners of war.
By 1944, Hans Habe had become a U.S. Army instructor, training others in psychological warfare and assembling a team of writers to help rebuild the German press as part of postwar reconstruction. He was allowed to handpick those he deemed fit for the job.
In 1945, Habe returned to Germany, where he established over a dozen newspapers in the American-occupied zone, some of which continue to influence the German press landscape to this day. His skills and experience made him a key figure in rebuilding Germany’s press after the war.
During his deployment in 1943, Hans Habe and his then-wife, Eleanor Habe, welcomed a son, Antal Miklós de Békessy.[2] Antal, the Hungarian equivalent of the name Anthony, was known as Tony to his friends. Antal was the half-brother of Marina Habe. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was his godmother.
Born in Manhattan, New York, Antal graduated from Princeton University in 1965. Among other accomplishments, he became a director and advisor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He passed away in 2015 in Paris, France. He was buried at Princeton Cemetery and is survived by his daughter, Laetitia Allen Vere.[3]
Antal’s mother, Eleanor Post Close, was the granddaughter of C.W. Post, the founder of the Postum Cereal Company, which later became the General Foods Corporation. In 1927, Eleanor made her official debut in high society at a formal event called a debutante ball, and the following year she was presented at Buckingham Palace to King George and Queen Mary.
Hans Habe was married four times before meeting actress Eloise Hardt, who became his fifth wife. His third wife was Eleanor, and after their divorce, he married a German actress. In the late 1940s, he met Eloise. Their relationship quickly deepened, and Habe divorced his fourth wife to marry her.