HABE, HANS

HABE, HANS (pseudonym of János Békessy; 1911–1977), Budapest-born German novelist whose works reflect fierce opposition to the Nazis. Habe became the League of Nations correspondent of the Prager Tagblatt in 1935. On the outbreak of World War II he enlisted in the French army. He escaped from a German POW camp in 1940, and served in the U.S. forces for the rest of the war. In 1945 he founded the American-backed Munich Neue Zeitung. Habe's novels include Drei ueber die Grenze (1937: Three over the Frontier, 1939), Weg ins Dunkel (1951; first published as Walk in Darkness, 1949), and Im Namen des Teufels (1956; Agent of the Devil, 1959). The autobiographical Ob Tausend Fallen (1943; first published as A Thousand Shall Fall, 1941) describes the ordeal of foreign volunteers and loyal French troops deprived of arms and encouragement by the incompetent and defeatist French high command. His book on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Der Tod in Texas (1964), appeared in the U.S. as The Wounded Land. Habe also wrote an autobiography, All My Sins (1957); Die Mission (1965; The Mission, 1966), based on the evian conference of 1938; and Christopher and His Father (1967), which deals with the question of Federal Germany's remorse. His autobiography was published under the title Ich stelle mich – Meine Lebensgeschichte. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: R.K. Zachau, "Hans Habe als Herausgeber der 'Neuen Zeitung,'" in: W. Benz and M. Neiss, Deutsch-Juedisches Exil – Das Ende der Assimilation? (1994), 151–64.