{{Short description|Austrian-British writer and historian (1921–2012)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox writer | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|CBE|size=100%}} | image = Gitta Sereny.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = 13 March 1921 | birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[First Republic of Austria|Austria]] | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2012|6|14|1921|3|13}}<ref name="Tel o">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9339865/Gitta-Sereny.html |title=Gitta Sereny |newspaper=Telegraph |date=18 June 2012 |access-date=2012-06-18}}</ref> | death_place = [[Cambridge]], [[England]], UK | resting_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Writer * historian * journalist }} | language = [[English language|English]] | nationality = | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = Non-fiction | subject = The Holocaust, child abuse, society | movement = | notableworks = ''The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child Who Murdered'' (1972) <br /> "Into That Darkness, an examination of conscience" (1974) <br /> ''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth'' (1995) | spouse = [[Don Honeyman]] (1948–2011) | partner = | children = | relatives = [[Ludwig von Mises]] (stepfather) | influences = | influenced = | awards = [[Duff Cooper Prize]] (1995) <br> [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] (1995)<br>[[Stig Dagerman Prize]] (2002) <br> [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (2004) | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }} '''Gitta Sereny''', [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (13 March 1921{{spaced ndash}}14 June 2012) was an Austrian-British [[biographer]], historian, and [[investigative journalist]] who became known for her interviews and profiles of infamous figures, including [[Mary Bell]], who was convicted in 1968 of killing two children when she herself was a child, and [[Franz Stangl]], the [[commandant]] of the [[Treblinka extermination camp]].

Born and initially raised in Austria, she was the author of five books, including ''The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child Who Murdered'' (1972) and ''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth'' (1995).

Sereny was awarded the [[Duff Cooper Prize]] and the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for her book on [[Albert Speer]] in 1995, and the [[Stig Dagerman Prize]] in 2002. She was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 2004 for services to journalism.

==Biography== Sereny was born in [[Vienna]], [[First Republic of Austria|Austria]], in 1921. Her father was a Hungarian Protestant [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocrat]], Ferdinand Serény, who died when she was two. Her mother was a former actress from [[Hamburg]], Margit Herzfeld, of German-Jewish background.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/books/into-that-darkness-again.html|title = Into That Darkness, Again|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 23 December 2001|last1 = Schoenfeld|first1 = Gabriel}}</ref> Gitta Sereny's stepfather was the economist [[Ludwig von Mises]].<ref>''The legacy of Ludwig von Mises'', by Peter J. Boettke, Peter T. Leeson, p. xiv</ref>

When she was thirteen, her train journey to a [[boarding school]] in the United Kingdom was delayed in [[Nürnberg]], where she attended one of the annual [[Nuremberg rallies|Nürnberg rallies]]. After writing about the rally for a class assignment, she was given ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' to read by her teacher so she might be able to understand what she saw there. After the Nazi [[Anschluss|takeover of Austria]] in 1938, she moved to [[France]], where she worked with orphans during the [[German occupation of France during World War II|German occupation]] until she had to flee the country because of her connection to the [[French Resistance]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spikemagazine.com/0201gittasereny.php|title=Gitta Sereny: The German Trauma – Spike Magazine}}</ref>

After [[World War II]], she worked for the [[United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration]] with refugees in [[Allied-occupied Germany]]. Among her tasks was reuniting with their biological families children who had been [[Kidnapping of children for forced Germanization by Nazi Germany|kidnapped by the Nazis]] to be raised as "[[Aryan race|Aryans]]".<ref name="cruel">[[Lynn H. Nicholas]], ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'', p. 511 {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}</ref> This could be a traumatic experience because the children did not always remember their original family, but when she accompanied a train-load of such children back to Poland she saw the delight of the original family members at the restoration of the children.<ref name="cruel"/>

She attended the [[Nuremberg trials|Nürnberg trials]] for four days in 1945 as an observer, and it was here that she first saw [[Albert Speer]], about whom she would later write the book ''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth''. It was for this book that she was awarded the 1995 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]]. The book was also later adapted by [[David Edgar (playwright)|David Edgar]] as the play ''[[Albert Speer (play)|Albert Speer]]'' and directed by [[Trevor Nunn]] at the National Theatre in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/1245/productions/albert-speer.html |title=Albert Speer – Productions |publisher=National Theatre |access-date=2012-06-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616123723/http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/1245/productions/albert-speer.html |archive-date=16 June 2012}}</ref>

She married [[Don Honeyman]] in 1948 and moved to London, where they raised their two children. Don Honeyman (who died 1 June 2011) was a photographer, who worked for ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' and ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', among other publications. The poster of [[Che Guevara]] on a red background<ref>{{cite web|author=Mandy Honeyman |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkh/179617178/ |title=Don Honeyman with the 1st Che poster he created &#124; Flickr – Photo Sharing! |date=2 July 2006 |publisher=Flickr |access-date=2012-06-18}}</ref> (1968) is one of his best known creations.

From the mid-1960s and throughout the 1970s, she wrote extensively for ''The Daily Telegraph Magazine'' under the editorship of John Anstey.{{cn|date=May 2026}} These articles were often about young people, the social services, children and their relationships with their parents and society. This led to her covering the trial of eleven-year-old [[Mary Bell]] (found guilty of murdering two children) and would further lead to her first investigative book on this case.{{cn|date=May 2026}}

==Writing== ===Books=== ''The Case of Mary Bell'' was first published in 1972 following [[Mary Bell]]'s trial; in it Sereny interviewed her family, friends and the professionals involved in looking after Mary during her trial. This book was edited by [[Diana Athill]] who would also edit Sereny's ''Into That Darkness''.

''Into That Darkness'' (also following an initial article for the Telegraph magazine) was an examination of the guilt of [[Franz Stangl]], the commandant of the [[Treblinka]] and [[Sobibor]] extermination camps.<ref>Neild, Barry. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/18/gitta-sereny-dies-at-91?newsfeed=true "Gitta Sereny dies at 91"], ''The Guardian'', 18 June 2012.</ref> She spent 70<ref>Sereny, G. (1983). Into that darkness. 1st ed. New York: Vintage Books, p.14.</ref> hours interviewing him in prison for the article and when she had finished he finally admitted his guilt; he died of a heart attack nineteen hours later.

''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth'' (1995) is a biographical work on [[Albert Speer]], German minister of Armaments during World War II. In it, Sereny explores how much Speer knew about [[the Holocaust]]. During the [[Nuremberg trials]], Speer had avoided a death sentence, claiming all the while that he knew nothing of the Holocaust. However, Sereny concludes that Speer must have known based on a letter he wrote to the Jewish community in South Africa (after the war), and the fact that his closest assistant attended the [[Wannsee Conference]] (where the details of the genocide of the Jews were worked out) and could not have failed to inform him about the proceedings.

In 1998, her second book on Mary Bell, ''Cries Unheard'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/review_of_98/newsmakers/231802.stm |title=Newsmakers &#124; April: Gitta Sereny |work=BBC News |date=1998-12-22 |access-date=2012-06-24}}</ref> caused controversy in the British press because she shared the publishing fee, from Macmillan Publishers, with Mary Bell for collaborating on the book. Sereny was initially criticized<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/86021.stm|title=BBC News &#124; UK &#124; Gitta Sereny: Biographer with bite}}</ref> in the British press and by the British government, though the book quickly became, and remains, a standard text for professionals working with problem children.

Sereny wrote of her final book, ''The German Trauma'' (2002): "The nineteen chapters in this book, all intimately concerned with Germany before, during and since the end of the Third Reich, describe more or less sequentially what I saw and learned from 1938 to 1999, thus almost over a lifetime."<ref>The German Trauma pp xi Introduction by Gitta Sereny</ref>

===David Irving libel suit=== British [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]] [[David Irving]] initiated a [[libel]] case against Sereny and the Guardian Media Group for two reviews in ''The Observer'' where she asserted he deliberately falsified the historical record in an attempt to rehabilitate the Nazis. Irving maintained a personal animosity for Sereny, whom he calls "that shriveled [[Nazi hunter]]", for successfully refuting his claims since the publication of his book ''Hitler's War''. In 1977, Sereny cross-checked the source he cited for his assertion that Hitler knew nothing about the "[[Final Solution]]", and therefore could not have ordered the "Final Solution". Gitta Sereny proved that Irving had made an additional assertion which would have contradicted his claim; "I know many of the same people as he does who were of Hitler's circle…". Ms. Sereny later said, "That is scary for him. He says, 'we jostle at the same trough'. The difference is that he loves that trough, and I don't. There is, I think, for him [David Irving], despair in all of this." Although the case did not go to court, the cost to the Guardian Media Group of preparing its legal defence amounted to £800,000.<ref>{{cite news|title=Memories are made of this|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/24/historybooks.features|date=24 February 2002|newspaper=The Observer|author=Tim Adams|access-date=28 September 2010}}</ref>

==Death== Gitta Sereny died on 14 June 2012 at age 91 while in [[Addenbrooke's Hospital]], Cambridge, after a long illness.<ref>{{cite news|author=Cahal Milmo |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/veteran-journalist-gitta-sereny-dies-age-91-7858696.html |title=Veteran journalist Gitta Sereny dies age 91 – News – People |work=The Independent|date=2012-04-30 |access-date=2012-06-18}}</ref>

==Bibliography== Her writings include: * {{cite book |title=The Case of Mary Bell |publisher=Random House |volume=158 of Pimlico (Series) |location=United Kingdom | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l48srhWbby0C |date=13 February 1995 |isbn= 978-0-7126-6297-0}} * ''Into That Darkness: from Mercy Killing to Mass Murder, a study of [[Franz Stangl]], the commandant of [[Treblinka]]'' (1974, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ntgT48CY1wwC second edition 1995]) * ''The Invisible Children: Child Prostitution in America, West Germany and Great Britain'', London: Deutsch (1984) * ''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth'' (1995, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z3gKDdRgL8C 1996 paperback]) * ''Cries Unheard: The Story of Mary Bell'' (1998) * ''The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections, 1938–2001'' (2002)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sereny|first1=Gitta|title=The healing wound: experience and reflections, Germany, 1938–2001|date=2002|publisher=W.W. Norton|location=New York, N.Y.|isbn=0-393-32382-X|edition=Reprint}}</ref>

The second edition of ''The Case of Mary Bell'' contains an appendix on the [[murder of James Bulger]].

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/86021.stm BBC biography] *[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0201gittasereny.php Interview] in ''[[Spike Magazine]]'' *[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/children.html Stolen Children] by Gitta Sereny *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081218103553/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960301fabook3867/gitta-sereny/albert-speer-his-battle-with-truth.html Review of ''Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth''] in ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' *[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/21-june-2012/4084684 Two half-hour ABC interviews with Sereny about Speer and Mary Bell] *[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047bvj5 1998 Interview with Gitta Sereny] ''[[In the Psychiatrist's Chair]]'', [[BBC]], 21 June 2014 *[https://mises.org/sites/default/files/My%20Years%20with%20Ludwig%20von%20Mises_2.pdf ''My Years with Ludwig von Mises''], Margit von Mises. [[Arlington House Publishers]], NY. 1976 5 August 2014

{{Stig Dagerman Prize winners}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sereny, Gitta}} [[Category:1921 births]] [[Category:2012 deaths]] [[Category:Historians of Nazism]] [[Category:Hungarian women writers]] [[Category:Writers from Vienna]] [[Category:Austrian people of Hungarian descent]] [[Category:British people of Hungarian descent]] [[Category:Australian people of German-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Austrian Protestants]] [[Category:Hungarian Protestants]] [[Category:British Protestants]] [[Category:British biographers]] [[Category:British investigative journalists]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]] [[Category:British women journalists]] [[Category:Austrian journalists]] [[Category:Austrian women journalists]] [[Category:Austrian biographers]] [[Category:Austrian women writers]] [[Category:Austrian women biographers]] [[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom]]