György Aczél (born Henrik Appel; 31 August 1917 – 6 December 1991) was a Hungarian communist politician. He became a member of the then illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of the Political Committee (Hu: Politikai Bizottság) of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1956. He was a deputy minister from 1958 to 1967, later, as one of the leaders of the Party's Central Committee (Hu: Központi Bizottság) the most influential figure in socialist culture politics. Biography Early life and career He was born as Henrik Appel into a poor Jewish family in Budapest. His father, Gyula Appel was a coachman and a butcher's assistant, his mother, Aranka Weimann was a typist. After his father's death in 1925 who froze to death in a slaughterhouse he was brought up in an orphanage where he also carried out his studies. Later he became a bricklayer's assistant. He changed his family name in 1936 and his first name about at the end of the 1930s, but only in 1946 and in 1955 he officially became Aczél and György, respectively. He was married in 1939 and two daughters were born from his marriage. He mostly educated himself in an autodidact way, furthermore, he completed the autumn semester at the Academy of Drama and Film besides his work. He started to work as an amateur actor and as a performer. In the beginning, he acted in the company stagione of Nándor Alapi, he performed in several minor roles in Budapest, but he also played in Győr, Pécs and Balassagyarmat. On 24 December 1938, he held an independent performance at the Liszt Academy. In January 1939 he had his own declamation of poems of Endre Ady, Ferenc Kölcsey, Gyula Illyés, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi and Lőrinc Szabó. The upcoming anti-Jewish laws blocked him from stage. Between 1942 and 1944 he performed on several occasions in the Goldmark Hall of the Liszt Academy. In the framework of the OMIKE Art Exhibition, and was often featured in the workshops of the workers' organised meetings. At the beginning of the 1930s he joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, and in 1935 he joined the then illegal Communist Party. At the beginning of 1942 he was arrested for illegal communist activities and locked in the prison of Vác. At the end of 1942 he was summoned to labor service where he managed to disassemble