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Kata

Writer's picture: Csilla  ToldyCsilla Toldy

Today is HMD - Holocaust Memorial Day. After many years spent with research and writing during the lockdown, Kata - my novel about Katalin Karady was picked up by Judit Hermann, the Hungarian agent of Andrew Nurnberg Associates and within a few months I had a publisher in Hungary. Open Books published Kata in July 2024 in Julia Biro's translation, and we launched it at the Budapest Book Festival at the end of September, introduced by the present Irish ambassador, Ragnar Almqist who resides in Karady's former home, the villa at 26 Lepke Street. Earlier in the year, I read a chapter there on Brigid's Day 2024 in English, celebrating the woman, people saver, and Righteous Among the Nations.

I know that I owe this quick success to Karady's fame and legend in Hungary. She still has many fans, who all have an image of her in their hearts. It is hard to compete with that image, but I wanted to write a book about the woman, who saved children during WWII, as well as many of her friends. I wanted to show how her freestyle and example influenced the lives of her fans, women and men. The personal angle is important for me, as I see the world through the lenses I was born with.

Katalin Karady with her screen partner Pal Javor
Katalin Karady with her screen partner Pal Javor

On this, personal level, the novel is a protest. Karady had to pay a high price for her liberal way of living, and for being the fiancée of a general, the right hand of the regent and head of Intelligence. Tortured by the Gestapo, and hunted by Hungarian Nazis, she survived the war, but contrary to her fame and star status, she did not fit into the new socialist realism. She received less and less work after the war and left Hungary in 1951, never to return. She died at the age of 80 in New York.

Robert Severin, British/Hungarian musician wrote two songs about her life - in this one -Curtain Call - I was honoured to co-write the lyrics. Many thanks to Adrian Lips, whose painting features in the video.




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