The Sopron Division

The exodus of the Sopron Forestry College at that time was a unique event, unparalleled in history.

At a mass meeting held on the eve of the revolution, forestry engineering students formed the United Organization of University and College Students. They also declared their desire for a democratic, independent Hungary. The following day, they held a march under the slogan “TOGETHER WITH THE POLES!” During the revolution, they guarded factories, industrial plants and shops. They cooperated with the police and border guards to maintain order and assisted in receiving and distributing aid. In the area of Nagycenk, armed with rudimentary weapons, they awaited the invading Soviet troops; fortunately, no actual combat took place. However, fearing reprisals, most of them decided to cross the border.

Nearly half of the faculty and a significant majority of the students left the country and fled to Austria. Kálmán Roller, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry — who later became Dean of the Hungarian Division at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver — did everything in his power to keep the group together. When it became clear that the Hungarian School of Forestry could not remain in Austria permanently, Dean Roller sent letters to twenty countries explaining the situation. The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia offered to admit forestry students from Sopron and guaranteed the continuation of the program and Hungarian-language instruction for five years, while gradually introducing English-language courses taught by UBC professors.

The Hungarian group of 220 people — comprising students and some faculty members, along with their families — set out before New Year’s Eve 1956. They traveled from Liverpool to Canada aboard the legendary Empress of Britain. Their education resumed in Vancouver within the independent “Sopron Division,” organized under the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry. The final class graduated there in May 1961. The influence of the Sopron group within Canadian forestry circles was so significant that they were jokingly referred to as the “Hungarian Mafia,” according to Professor Antal Kozák, writing on the university’s website.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, nearly 100 professional Hungarian foresters found employment in Canada, with many attaining high-ranking positions. The university’s main thoroughfare — a street marked by a traditional Székely gate — was named Sopron Street.

Groups of alumni — sometimes numbering over a hundred — still gather in Vancouver on special occasions, and publish a periodical titled Kapocs (Link) to keep track of one another’s lives.

A ceremonial homecoming for the students and faculty members who had emigrated on November 4, 1956, took place in Sopron on November 4, 1990.