Marika

Marika, the child of a wealthy Jewish–Hungarian woman and an American movie distributor, starts life in Budapest when Hitler comes into power. Her early years are marked by parental neglect and her mother’s suicide. With the onset of World War II, she is orphaned and swept-up into the horrors of the Holocaust, enduring virulent anti-Semitism, near-starvation, and poisoning. 

Braving capture, Marika delivers forged documents to Jews who have escaped from trains en route to death camps. Captured by the Hungarian Nazis, she awaits execution, but is liberated at the last moment by a Russian officer as the Germans flee the city. 

Marika believes that the young man whom she loves has disappeared and at sixteen, decides to immigrate to the United States. 

In America, Marika lives with a distant relative in New York City. After learning English, she enrolls in Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She continues in graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. 

After post-graduate study and a position at a prominent hospital in Chicago, Marika’s work with children becomes recognized. She accepts a professorship at Harvard University and an important government position. Marika’s life is marred by a succession of hurtful marriages. She finally finds happiness on a visit to Budapest when she is reunited with the young man she loved years ago.