A police chief who stood between state orders and guns aimed at the people
On 23 October 1956, he refused the order to fire on unarmed demonstrators.
Sándor Kopácsi was a Hungarian police commander who began as a metalworker and anti-Nazi resistance activist, then sought room for reform within the state. As Budapest police chief, he refused on 23 October 1956 to order fire on unarmed demonstrators, cooperated with the uprising, and became deputy commander of the National Guard. Arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Imre Nagy trial, he was released in the 1963 amnesty and later gave the revolution an important insider testimony through his memoir.
Career Timeline
- 1944Joined the MOKÁN anti-Nazi resistance
- 1945Joined the Hungarian Communist Party and entered the police
- 1949Director of Internment Affairs, Ministry of the Interior
- 1952–1956Chief of Police of Budapest
- 1956Deputy commander of the National Guard
- 1958Sentenced to life imprisonment in the Imre Nagy trial
- 1963Released in an amnesty
- 1975–2001Emigration to Canada and memoir writing