The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World

Author Kati Marton follows these nine over the decades as they flee fascism and anti-Semitism, seek sanctuary in England and America, and set out to make their mark. The scientists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner enlist Albert Einstein to get Franklin Roosevelt to initiate the development of the atomic bomb. Along with John von Neuman, who pioneers the computer, they succeed in achieving that goal before Nazi Germany, ending the Second World War, and opening a new age.
Arthur Koestler writes the most important anti-Communist novel of the century, Darkness at Noon. Robert Capa is the first photographer ashore on D-Day. He virtually invents photojournalism and gives us some of the century's most enduring records of modern warfare. Andre Kertesz pioneers modern photojournalism, and Alexander Korda, who makes wartime propaganda films for Churchill, leaves a stark portrait of post war Europe with The Third Man, as his fellow filmmaker, Michael Curtiz, leaves us the immortal Casablanca, a call to arms and the most famous romantic film of all time. Marton brings passion and breadth to these dramatic lives as they help invent the twentieth century.

Kati Marton is the author of six books, including the New York Times Bestseller Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History and The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World as well as Wallenberg, The Polk Conspiracy and A Death in Jerusalem. A former NPR and ABC News correspondent and bureau chief, she is the recipient of a Peabody Award. Marton is also active in human rights, journalism, and education advocacy. In addition, she is a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, P.E.N. International, and the Authors Guild.