Sándor Zöld (19 May 1913 – 20 April 1951) was a Hungarian

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician, who served as

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

between 1950 and 1951. He followed János Kádár in this position. Born in Nagyvárad (today Oradea, Romania), his family moved to

Berettyóújfalu Berettyóújfalu is a town in Hajdú-Bihar county, in center of the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. It is 40 km south from Debrecen (the second largest city in Hungary), and about 35 km from Oradea (Romania). Berettyó� ...

after the signing of the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in ...

. In 1932 he joined to the illegal

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

with supporting of Gyula Kállai. From 1942 he worked as a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in the Berettyóújfalu hospital. He was a member of the interim national assembly in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In the Rákosi regime, he was appointed as interior minister. On 19 April 1951, on the party's congress, Mátyás Rákosi criticized the work of the Ministry of the Interior and later considered to have him arrested. The next day the authorities found Zöld's dead body together with those of his whole family: two children, his wife and his mother. According to the official information, Zöld killed his family then committed suicide. He was relieved of his interior ministerial position on the day of his death, and he was deprived of his offices in the Hungarian Working People's Party. His ashes were buried in an honorary grave in the Kerepesi Cemetery on 1 June 1957, but the accurate clarification of the bygones was canceled.

References

Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
1913 births 1951 deaths People from Oradea Hungarian people of German descent Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Hungarian Interior Ministers Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1945–1947) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1947–1949) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1949–1953) Hungarian politicians who committed suicide Suicides in Hungary {{Hungary-politician-stub