Jenő Sujánszky, one of the leaders of the Hungarian national resistance before 1956, died on Saturday at the age of 93, former parliament member Kornél Almássy told MTI on behalf of the family.
Jenő Sujánszky was born on August 4, 1929 in Budapest. He spent his childhood in Siófok, where his father owned a pharmacy.
In 1943, Jenő Sujánszky enrolled in the Artillery Military Academy in Nagyvárád. At the end of the Second World War, he fought at the age of 15 in the Battle of Budapest. He was captured, but he escaped under adventurous circumstances: he was able to jump off the train to the Soviet Union near the border, Kornél Almássy wrote.
Jenő Sujánszky finished high school in Budapest, then enrolled in the faculty of pharmacy at the Péter Péter University, but was expelled from there in 1949 because he was a class stranger.
By this time he had already begun to organize an underground movement; A resistance group called Mezartin was established under his leadership, the purpose of which was that if war broke out or the Soviet troops left Hungary, the members would occupy the radio building and the Lakihegy transmission tower in Budapest, as well as the weapons depots, and free the political prisoners.
However, the organization was betrayed and the conspirators were arrested in 1955. "To his greatest surprise," Jenő Sujánszky was only given 17 years by the communist court, wrote Kornél Almássy.
The revolution broke out, and on October 31, 1956, Jenő Sujánszky - together with many of his fellow prisoners - was released from the collective prison in Kőbánya by a protesting crowd. He returned home to his family in the Corvin region, where he fought until November 9, and then left the country in adventurous circumstances at the end of the month after the liberation struggle was defeated.
Jenő Sujánszky found a new home in Paris, France. From the end of the fifties, he was one of the leaders of the Hungarian emigration to France.
He could not return to Hungary until 1990. As a refugee, he became a chemist. He was a founding member of the Association of Hungarian Freedom Fighters in France, which undertook to preserve the spirit of the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
He was elected secretary-general, president, European vice-president, and later vice-president of the World Federation.
After the regime change, he received several civil awards.
He was rehabilitated by the Hungarian Defense Forces and given the retired rank of lieutenant colonel. President László Sólyom awarded him with the Imre Nagy Order of Merit in 2006. Jenő Sujánszky was "a hero of the 1956 revolution and freedom struggle", "with his death, we announce the passing of another 56 (...) legend", wrote Kornél Almássy.
Jenő Sujánszky died in Paris on Saturday.
MTI
