Off Limits

by Hans Habe, Unknown Author

Having shown Germany in victory in his book A Thousand Shall Fall, Hans Habe now portrays her in defeat, with the same vivid realism. His scene is the U.S. zone where, in those difficult years of the Allied occupation, human dignity and moral courage sank to their lowest ebb. Against the background of starvation and misery, prison camps and speculation, a varied cross-section of characters, either Germans or members of the American Army, react in their various ways to the unnatural conditions of their surroundings.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Novels, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Janos Békessy, better known under his pen name Hans Habe (12 February 1911, Budapest – 29 September 1977, Locarno) was an Hungarian-Austrian writer and newspaper publisher. From 1941, he held U.S. citizenship. Habe used also the pseudonyms Antonio Corte, Frank Richard, Frederick Gert, John Richler, Hans Wolfgang, and Robert Pilchowski.

Habe was born as Janos Békessy in Budapest, then capital of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents, Imre Békessy and Bianca Marton, were of Jewish origin but converted to the Christian (Protestant) faith.[citation needed] After World War I the family moved to Vienna where his father published one of the first daily tabloids, Die Stunde (The Hour), from 1923 to 1926. János was educated at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium between 1921 and 1929. Afterwards he started to study Law and German Literature at Heidelberg, but returned soon to Vienna because of the growing Anti-Semitism in Germany.