Journalist Delves into Parents' Fascinating Story

YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

In 1955, the Hungarian secret police jailed 6-year-old Kati Marton's father on sham espionage charges. Four months later, they did the same to her mother.

Marton, a Hungarian native, was reunited with her parents within two years. The family emigrated to the United States, where her parents resumed their lives as journalists and raised three children to believe in the American dream.

They never talked about what happened to them, or why.

But the writer in Marton would not let their story stay buried.

Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 did Marton, who became a journalist and humanitarian, return to her homeland for answers. What she found shocked her and became the foundation for her best-selling book, "Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America."

On Wednesday, Marton shared parts of her story with a packed house at the Capitol Theatre, courtesy of the Yakima Town Hall Speaker Series.

"These two people turned out to be vastly more interesting and vastly more human than the godlike figures I knew," Marton said. "I came away with enormous admiration for my parents and their courage."

Marton's parents, Endre and Ilona Marton, were Hungarian journalists who lived in Budapest. Endre worked as a correspondent for The Associated Press, while Ilona reported for the rival United Press International.

American sympathizers during the Cold War, the Martons' reports on communist show trials garnered the attention of Hungarian authorities -- so much so that the Martons were put under 24-7 surveillance.

Everything her parents did was recorded -- from what they wore to where they shopped. Even a family outing for ice cream was scrutinized, Marton said.

"Almost everyone in our inner circle was informing on us -- including our baby-sitter," she said. "She used me and my sister as sources to arrest my parents."

Marton, besides having worked as a news correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio, is a mother. And as a mother, she said she can't understand why her parents put their flamboyant lifestyle and political ideals before their children's welfare.

"My parents were terrific role models for me professionally, but not particularly as parents," she said. "Their defiance, as admirable as it was, came at a human cost."

Luckily, Marton said her parents never learned to what extent they were watched by both the FBI and Hungarian authorities after they moved to the United States.

Nor did they learn about their daughter's subsequent quest for the truth.

Only after they died more than five years ago did Marton start the 272-page memoir, published in 2009.

"I think history is too important to be left to historians," Marton said, adding that big secrets should not be kept from children. "It's better they learn from us than from other sources."

The final presenter of the Yakima Town Hall Speaker Series is Shawn Achor, a Harvard University professor who will talk about the science of happiness. His lecture will begin at 11 a.m. April 13 at the Capitol Theatre. Individual tickets are not sold, but package tickets for the 2010-2011 season cost $75 each.

by Erin Snelgrove, Yakima Herald-Republic

Posted March 14, 2011

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Yakima Town Hall - Journalist Delves into Parents' Fascinating Story

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