Growing up in a Jewish family in Budapest, Agnes Keleti was immersed in sports and the world of music. She took gymnastics lessons, swam and played the cello.
Then darkness descended.
Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, marking the start of World War II in Europe. The Nazis occupied Hungary in 1944 and deported hundreds of thousands of its Jews to death camps, among them Ms. Keleti’s father, Ferenc Klein, who died at Auschwitz.
Using papers she bought that identified her as a Christian girl, Ms. Keleti survived the war, working as a maid and a munitions worker.