The Hungarian Soldier Who Vanished In World War II And Returned Home In 2000: András Toma
Hungarian soldier András Toma was captured by Soviet forces in World War II and forgotten for decades in a psychiatric hospital because of a record error and a language barrier. He returned home only in 2000.
Sometimes war does not end on the battlefield. The story of András Toma is one of the most painful examples of that. Captured by Soviet forces during World War II, the Hungarian soldier was able to return to his country only in 2000. That is why he is often described as one of the last, and possibly the last, World War II prisoners of war to return home.
When he was captured near the end of the war, he was still very young. Like many other prisoners, he was transported east in overcrowded wagons. For wounded soldiers, that journey itself became a brutal trauma.
What truly destroyed Toma’s life, however, was a bureaucratic mistake. His name was recorded incorrectly in Soviet documents. In the chaos of postwar repatriation, that error was enough to make him disappear inside the system. Later, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital and effectively vanished from prisoner-of-war records. Years later, he was even officially declared dead.
His biggest problem in the hospital was language. Toma spoke Hungarian, and no one around him could understand him. Because Hungarian does not resemble Russian or most nearby languages, what he said sounded meaningless to those around him. Over time, he lost communication, withdrew into himself, and eventually became almost completely silent.
Everything changed in the late 1990s, when someone noticed that he was speaking Hungarian. His file was reexamined, Hungarian authorities were contacted, and his identity was investigated. DNA testing later confirmed his surviving relatives. When Toma returned to Hungary in 2000, his story became a major national news event.
After returning home, his military status was restored and some of his rights were recognized. He later lived with his sister. But the tragedy at the center of the story never changed. Toma returned home, but he had already lost his youth, his health, and most of his life. He died a few years later, leaving behind a devastating reminder that war does not only kill people. Sometimes it quietly erases them.