Early life Born in
Szabadka (now:
Subotica,
Serbia) to a Catholic
petty bourgeois family. His parents were István Ortutay journalist, editor of the
Szegedi Napló and Ilona Borsodi. He finished his secondary school studies at the
piarists in Szeged. After that he attended the
Franz Joseph University from 1928. His
psychology teacher was
Hildebrand Dezső Várkonyi. Soon he was making left-wing friends such as
Miklós Radnóti,
Gábor Tolnai,
Dezső Baróti,
Ferenc Erdei,
György Buday and
Viola Tomori. He married Zsuzsa Kemény, who served as chairperson of the Hungarian Dance Association from 1948, in 1938. They have three children: Mária (psychologist), Tamás (ceramist) and Zsuzsanna (district nurse).
Political career He got into contact with the communist intellectuals (
László Orbán,
Gyula Kállai,
Ferenc Hont) in the end of the 1930s. but
Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky had the largest effect on him. From 1942 he participated in the
antifascist movements. In the next year he joined the
Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKGP). He was Secretary-General of the National Council of
The People's Patriotic Front. ==References==