Marton, first with news of the Hungarian uprising

NEW YORK – Endre Marton, the Associated Press correspondent who provided the first eyewitness account of the bloody 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist rule, has died.

He was 95. Marton’s wife, Ilona Marton, a longtime wire service reporter for United Press, who covered the Hungarian revolt with her husband, died last year aged 92.As Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest on October 25 1956, Marton watched Russian troops fire into a crowd of demonstrators at Parliament Square but his communications were cut off and he was unable to send what he later called “the story of my life”.A friend arranged access to a government telex machine but it took hours to get an outside connection.He described the scene in his book, ‘The Forbidden Sky’, published in 1971.”The nighttime silence of the large room was suddenly broken when my machine sprang to life.I stared at it, waiting to see what would happen,” he wrote.”And then, miraculously, the words appeared on the paper: ‘Associated Press, Vienna.’ I sat there, with trembling fingers, and punched back: ‘AP, Budapest.’ Back came the message: ‘Endre …is that really you?’” His exclusive, front page story, about 3 000 words long, appeared in newspapers around the world.It began this way: “Parliament Square in Budapest became a battlefield shortly after noon today when a Soviet tank opened fire on a few thousand peaceful demonstrators whose only weapons were Hungarian flags.””Anyone using the teletype for the first time in his life will understand my agonies, the many mistakes I made with my thoughts flying far ahead of my inexperienced fingers, ” Marton said.”It was a strange feeling, though, to punch my stories about Soviet aggression while the building was being guarded by the same Soviet soldiers I was blasting in my dispatch.”The revolt was finally crushed the following month when thousands of Soviet troops overran the country.”After 15 years under the heel first of Nazi Germany and then Communist Russia, Hungary got a whiff of intoxicating freedom in late October,” Marton wrote.”Then came Sunday, November 4.Budapest was awakened by the roaring of guns.By authoritative estimate, Russians had moved 4 600 tanks and between 180 000 and 200 000 men into Hungary to crush the revolution.Against this might, Hungary had nine divisions of 90 000 men or less, equipped with obsolete weapons, and kids, some with guns.”Official reports said 5 000 to 6 000 died in the revolt, but according to Western estimates the figure was up to 32 000.Premier Imgre Nagy, who had declared Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, was later executed.Marton and his wife worked side by side, as news agency competitors.Both Martons were imprisoned prior to the revolution.In 1955 they were accused of spying for the United States and were tried and found guilty by a secret military court.He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, she to three.Both were released the following year, she in April and he in August, just in time to cover one of the iconic moments of the Cold War.”I spent 18 months in the prison of the Hungarian Communist secret police while my wife was in another isolated cell in that House of Horrors,” Marton wrote.In January of 1957, Marton received warnings he might be arrested again and he, his wife and two daughters were given refuge in the US Embassy and secretly smuggled to Austria.The family later moved to the United States, where Marton served for many years as diplomatic correspondent for the Associated Press in Washington.The same year, he and his wife shared the George Polk Award, presented annually for outstanding reporting in the public interest.He then became a professor at Georgetown University in the 1970s but continued his journalistic work by contributing to the Economist.Marton was born in Budapest on October 29 1910.He attended Budapest University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a graduate degree in economics four years later.He married Ilona Nyilas in 1943.- Nampa-APMarton’s wife, Ilona Marton, a longtime wire service reporter for United Press, who covered the Hungarian revolt with her husband, died last year aged 92.As Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest on October 25 1956, Marton watched Russian troops fire into a crowd of demonstrators at Parliament Square but his communications were cut off and he was unable to send what he later called “the story of my life”.A friend arranged access to a government telex machine but it took hours to get an outside connection.He described the scene in his book, ‘The Forbidden Sky’, published in 1971.”The nighttime silence of the large room was suddenly broken when my machine sprang to life.I stared at it, waiting to see what would happen,” he wrote.”And then, miraculously, the words appeared on the paper: ‘Associated Press, Vienna.’ I sat there, with trembling fingers, and punched back: ‘AP, Budapest.’ Back came the message: ‘Endre …is that really you?’” His exclusive, front page story, about 3 000 words long, appeared in newspapers around the world.It began this way: “Parliament Square in Budapest became a battlefield shortly after noon today when a Soviet tank opened fire on a few thousand peaceful demonstrators whose only weapons were Hungarian flags.””Anyone using the teletype for the first time in his life will understand my agonies, the many mistakes I made with my thoughts flying far ahead of my inexperienced fingers, ” Marton said.”It was a strange feeling, though, to punch my stories about Soviet aggression while the building was being guarded by the same Soviet soldiers I was blasting in my dispatch.”The revolt was finally crushed the following month when thousands of Soviet troops overran the country.”After 15 years under the heel first of Nazi Germany and then Communist Russia, Hungary got a whiff of intoxicating freedom in late October,” Marton wrote.”Then came Sunday, November 4.Budapest was awakened by the roaring of guns.By authoritative estimate, Russians had moved 4 600 tanks and between 180 000 and 200 000 men into Hungary to crush the revolution.Against this might, Hungary had nine divisions of 90 000 men or less, equipped with obsolete weapons, and kids, some with guns.”Official reports said 5 000 to 6 000 died in the revolt, but according to Western estimates the figure was up to 32 000.Premier Imgre Nagy, who had declared Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, was later executed.Marton and his wife worked side by side, as news agency competitors.Both Martons were imprisoned prior to the revolution.In 1955 they were accused of spying for the United States and were tried and found guilty by a secret military court.He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, she to three.Both were released the following year, she in April and he in August, just in time to cover one of the iconic moments of the Cold War.”I spent 18 months in the prison of the Hungarian Communist secret police while my wife was in another isolated cell in that House of Horrors,” Marton wrote.In January of 1957, Marton received warnings he might be arrested again and he, his wife and two daughters were given refuge in the US Embassy and secretly smuggled to Austria.The family later moved to the United States, where Marton served for many years as diplomatic correspondent for the Associated Press in Washington.The same year, he and his wife shared the George Polk Award, presented annually for outstanding reporting in the public interest.He then became a professor at Georgetown University in the 1970s but continued his journalistic work by contributing to the Economist.Marton was born in Budapest on October 29 1910.He attended Budapest University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a graduate degree in economics four years later.He married Ilona Nyilas in 1943.- Nampa-AP