Sándor Szűcs

Sándor Szűcs
Personnel
birthday	November 23, 1921
place of birth	Szolnok ,  Kingdom of Hungary
date of death	June 4th 1951
Place of death	Budapest ,  Hungary
position	Defense
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
0000-1944	Szolnoki MÁV FC
1944-1951	Újpest Budapest
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1941-1948	Hungary	19 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Gravestone of Sándor Szűcs in the Új köztemető cemetery in Budapest with the inscription "The multiple national football player died as a martyr"

Sándor Szűcs (born November 23, 1921 in Szolnok , † June 4, 1951 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian football player . In 1951 he was executed in Hungary for " high treason ".

biography

Career as a footballer

After finishing school, Sándor Szűcs completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith . He began his football career with Szolnoki MÁV FC , from 1944 he played for Újpest Budapest . With this team Szűcs was from 1945 to 1947 three times in a row Hungarian champions . At the age of 19 he was appointed to the Hungarian national junior team and had three missions. On March 23, 1941 he played for the first time in the men's national team; by 1948 he completed 19 international matches, together with, among others, Ferenc Puskás , Gyula Lóránt and Sándor Kocsis . He was considered one of the best defenders in Europe.

Escape attempt and the consequences

After the end of the Second World War and the subsequent establishment of the Hungarian People's Republic based on the Soviet model, numerous Hungarian football players went abroad, also because they could earn more money there. On the initiative of Vilmos Sipos, they formed their own national selection based in Italy , the IRO Hungaria (IRO = International Refugee Organization), against which the Hungarian authorities protested. This selection, in which other nationalities were represented, played several friendlies between 1949 and 1954. Those who had already emigrated tried to bring more Hungarian players, including Szűcs, to the West, while the government tried to prevent further departures. From 1950 all players from Újpest were official employees of the Ministry of the Interior and belonged to the police, whereas the players of the local rival Honvéd Budapest were subordinate to the military.

In the summer of 1948 Sándor Szűcs met the popular jazz singer Erzsi Kovács , whose husband had invited the footballers to a party. They fell in love with each other. Both were married, Szűcs father of two children. A few days after their first meeting, Kovács left her husband. The then President of Újpest asked Szűcs to end the "immoral" relationship and threatened him with imprisonment in the camp . Erzsi Kovács was summoned to interview by the Államvédelmi Hatóság (ÁVH) security service . From then on, the lovers could only meet in secret. In October 1948 Szűcs played his last international match in a friendly against Austria, after which he was no longer set up.

On March 6, 1951, Sándor Szűcs and Erzsi Kovács tried to leave Hungary together illegally. Szűcs knew from Gyula Zsengellér , who was already playing in Italy , that a club from Turin was interested in him. They were arrested while trying to drive across the border to Yugoslavia in a rental car accompanied by an escape worker . Apparently the escape attempt was betrayed by their companion, who allegedly belonged to the ÁVH, as soldiers were already waiting for them there. They were taken to the ÁVH headquarters in Budapest , now known as the House of Terror .

Sándor Szűcs and Erzsi Kovács were tried before a military tribunal. Kovács later reported: “At the hearing we sat next to each other. Sándor didn't want to believe that he had done anything bad, he just wanted to play abroad. He told me that I should not worry and that everything would be fine. Treason "" In May 1951, the 29-year-old Szűcs because was "sentenced to death and on June 4, 1951 a secret location in Budapest by train executed . His team- mates József Bozsik , Ferenc Szusza and Puskás had applied for pardon in vain.

In its judgment, the court relied on Decree No. 26 of 1950, according to which persons subjected to military criminal justice could be sentenced to life imprisonment or death if they crossed the border illegally. This was the case with Szűcs because he was a police officer. The law was never officially ratified and - as far as is known - neither before nor after it was applied again. The fact that Szűcs had his service weapon with him was assessed as aggravating the punishment; the alleged employee of the ÁVH is said to have advised him to take them with him. It is believed that Szűcs was set up by the ÁVH, both regarding the escape itself and the weapon. Erzsi Kovács was sentenced to four years in prison. She only found out about her boyfriend's death after she was released from prison at the end of 1954.

The death sentence against Szűcs was understood as a warning to other athletes not to leave Hungary. Because the national soccer team was seen as the figurehead of the “new” communist Hungary and served propaganda purposes, an example was apparently made to him. In fact, until the Hungarian uprising in 1956, no other national football player dared to try to flee abroad. Only then did Puskás, Zoltán Czibor and Sándor Kocsis leave their homeland.

Rehabilitation and memory

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Sándor Szűcs' death sentence was overturned and he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the police. The circumstances of his death and the location of his remains were also made public. A school and a grandstand in the home stadium of Újpest, the Szusza Ferenc Stadium , were named after him. Erzsi Kovács (1928–2014), who worked as a singer until the 2000s, reported on the events in her autobiography Rejtély , and in 2005 Béla Szobolits made the documentary Miért? Egy tragikus szerelem története (Why? A tragic love story) .

title

• with Újpest Budapest
  • Hungarian champion : 1945 , 1945/46 , 1946/47

Web links

Commons : Sándor Szűcs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sándor Szűcs in the database of transfermarkt.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ † Szűcs Sándor (Szolnok 1921-11-23 - Budapest 1951-06-04). In: magyarfutball.hu. February 13, 2002, accessed November 24, 2018 (Hungarian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Magyar martyr- the killing of Sándor Szűcs. In: abohemiansportinglife.wordpress.com. December 30, 2015, accessed November 24, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Raphaël Brosse: You foot avec Puskás à la pendaison, l'incroyable destin de Sándor Szűcs. In: Vice . March 31, 2017, accessed November 24, 2018 (French). 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Szurovecz Pál: Tragikus véget ért Szűcs Sándor története, kinek nevét az egyik tiszaligeti pálya is viseli. In: szoljon.hu. October 6, 2017, accessed June 4, 2021 (Hungarian). 
5. ↑ Monsider Zvonko. In: reprezentacija.rs. May 9, 2020, accessed June 4, 2021 (Serbian). 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Szűcs Sándort azért végezték ki, mert szerelmes volt. In: 24.hu. March 29, 2016, Retrieved November 24, 2018 (Hungarian). 
7. ^ Simone Cola: Sándor Szűcs, il martire dimenticato della Grande Ungheria - L'uomo nel pallone. In: uomonelpallone.it. November 14, 2017, accessed November 25, 2018 (Italian). 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Raphaël Brosse: Sándor Szucs, pendu pour l'exemple. In: footballski.fr. October 23, 2016, accessed November 25, 2018 (French). 
9. ^ Péter Fodor: Erasing, Rewriting, and Propaganda in the Hungarian Sports Films of the 1950s. In: The Hungarian Historical Review. Volume 6, No. 2, 2017, pp. 328–354 , accessed on June 4, 2021 (English). 
10. ^ Eszter Zsófia Tóth: The chanteuse, the soccer player, and their tragic love story. In: freedomfirst1956.com. 2016, accessed June 4, 2021 . Miért ?! - Egy tragikus szerelem története. In: film in Hungary. Retrieved November 25, 2018 .