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Deadly Carousel

A Diva’s Exploits in Wartime Budapest

Vali Rácz was a successful singer and film actress, the darling of the Hungarian public. She was young, beautiful and Aryan. Although the Nazis represented no particular threat to her, she was greatly disturbed by the persecution of the Jews, many of whom had been friends, mentors and colleagues. She risked her life by turning her elegant villa in the residential quarter of Buda into a secret refuge for Jewish friends.

In September 1991 the Jewish people’s highest expression of gratitude was conferred upon Vali Rácz in Jerusalem: the title of ‘Righteous among the Nations’.

With an undoubted gift for narrative and an elegant, readable style Monica Porter traces both the life of her remarkable and courageous mother and a fascinating period in Hungarian history, encompassing such events as the 1944 coup d’etat, the Siege of Budapest and the rise to power of the Communists.

This lively and moving book throws fresh light upon the modern history of Hungary and the life of one of its leading cultural celebrities.

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    Acknowledgements

    The website in its current form would not have been possible without the participation of the following persons and institutions:

    Monica Porter – writer and journalist

    National Museum and Institute of Theater History, Budapest

    Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest

    Zsolt Péter – theater historian

    Rippl-Rónai County Competent City Museum, Kaposvár

    Dr. Éva Varga – chief modern historian-museologist

     

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    Roland Jagados

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