Kati Marton
Kati Marton (born April 3, 1949) is a Hungarian-American author and journalist. Her career has included reporting for ABC News as a foreign correspondent and National Public Radio, where she started as a production assistant in 1971, as well as print journalism and writing a number of books. She is a former chairwoman of the International Women's Health Coalition, and a director (former chairwoman) of the Committee to Protect Journalists and other bodies including the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and the New America Foundation.
Kati Marton

Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Kati Marton
- Born
- 3 April 1949
- Birthplace
- Budapest, Hungary
- Occupation
- Journalist, human rights activist
- Education
- Wells College, 1965–67 Sorbonne and Institut d'Études Politiques, Paris, 1967–68 George Washington University, B.A., 1969, M.A., 1971
- Spouse
- * Carroll Wetzel (div. divorced)
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- journalism · opinion journalism
- Honours
- Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit · Great Immigrants Award
- Languages
- English
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In this article
Biography
Biography
Kati Marton studied at Faculty of Arts of Paris, George Washington University and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is journalism and opinion journalism. Places of work recorded in the authority are New York City. Employment is recorded with Bard College. Distinctions recorded are Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit and Great Immigrants Award.

Jonathan Klein, Kati Marton, and Joel Simon at CPJ's 2023 International Press Freedom Awards ceremony in New York City, on November 16, 2023.
CPJ Photos
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kati Marton • Born — 3 April 1949 • Birthplace — Budapest, Hungary • Occupation — Journalist, human rights activist • Education — Wells College, 1965–67 Sorbonne and Institut d'Études Politiques, Paris, 1967–68 George Washington University, B.A., 1969, M.A., 1971 • Spouse — * Carroll Wetzel (div. divorced) • Children — 2 • Agent — Amanda Urban, International Creative Management • Credits — ABC News Kati Marton (born April 3, 1949) is a Hungarian-American author and journalist. Her career has included reporting for ABC News as a foreign correspondent and National Public Radio, where she started as a production assistant in 1971, as well as print journalism and writing a number of books. She is a former chairwoman of the International Women's Health Coalition, and a director (former chairwoman) of the Committee to Protect Journalists and other bodies including the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and the New America Foundation.
Early life
Early life
Marton was born in Budapest, Hungary, the daughter of UPI reporter Ilona Marton and award-winning Associated Press reporter Endre Marton. Her parents survived the Holocaust of World War II but never spoke about it. They served nearly two years in prison on false charges of espionage for the U.S., and Kati and her older sister were placed in the care of strangers. Raised a Roman Catholic, she learned much later, and by accident, that her grandparents were Jews, who were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Among the many honors her parents received for their reporting on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was the George Polk Award. The family fled Hungary following the revolution and settled in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where Marton attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.
Education
Education
Marton studied at Wells College, Aurora, New York, the Sorbonne and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. Growing up in Hungary, she had a French nanny, so she was raised speaking both Hungarian and French, learning American English when her family moved to the U.S. She has a master's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.
Personal life
Personal life
Marton has been married three times. She was first married to Carroll Wetzel, a retired international investment banker from Philadelphia, in the early 1970s. Her second husband was ABC News anchor Peter Jennings; Jennings and Marton had two children together, Elizabeth and Christopher, before divorcing in 1993. Her third husband was diplomat Richard Holbrooke, from 1995 until his death in December 2010. Marton frequently traveled with Holbrooke during his diplomatic missions in the former Yugoslavia, and in the Middle East. She wrote about their love, and recovering from his death in her 2012 memoir Paris: A Love Story.
Selected writing
Selected writing
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Awards
Marton has received several honors for her reporting, including the 2001 Rebekah Kohut Humanitarian Award by the National Council of Jewish Women, the 2002 Matrix Award for Women Who Change the World, the George Foster Peabody Award (presented to WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, in 1973), and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary—the country's highest civilian honor. She is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Her book, Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America, was an autobiography finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2009.
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Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Kati Marton, revision 1371215651 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Gale. Kati Marton. Contemporary Authors Online. 2011.
- 2.Marton, Kati. The Shadow of a Smile. The New York Times. October 23, 2006.
- 3.Bumiller, Elisabeth. PUBLIC LIVES; Mr. Secretary, Perhaps, and Ms. Ambassador. The New York Times. July 23, 1998.
- 4.Furst, Alan. The Dossier. The New York Times. October 30, 2009.
- 5.The Daily Beast: "In Syria, Europe & Boston, the Past Is Never Finished" by Kati Marton May 11, 2013 |Raised Catholic by my mother and father, I didn’t learn until adulthood that my maternal grandparents were in one of Adolf Eichmann’s early transports from the Hungarian countryside to Auschwitz. My parents, converted Jews, tried to shield me from the murderous hate they had experienced in Budapest; they had told me my grandparents had perished under the Allies’ bombs
- 6.Mansfield, Stephanie. Kati Marton's Hungarian Odyssey. The Washington Post. D1. April 28, 1987.
- 7.McFadden, Robert D. RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE, 1941-2010 : Strong American Voice in Diplomacy and Crisis. New York Times. December 13, 2010.
- 8.NNDB. Richard C. Holbrooke.
- 9.Kati Marton, Recalling 'Paris' With Love And Longing. NPR Weekend Edition Saturday. August 18, 2012.
- 10.NBCC Board of Directors. National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists. January 23, 2010.
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