András Toma

András Toma

(András Toma returning to Hungary from 53 a Prisoner in the Soviet Union/Russia on August 11, 2000.)

András Toma was born on December 5, 1925 in Újfehértó, Hungary.

His Mother died when he was 4 years old.

He was Drafted into the Royal Hungarian Army in October 1944 when he was 18 years old.

Hungary was fighting on the side of Nazi Germany during the War and Toma was captured by the Soviets near Krakow, Poland when he was 19 years old.

Toma was sent to the Boksitogorsk  Prisoner of War Camp near Leningrad, the Soviet Union (Present-Day Saint Petersburg, Russia) until the Camp was closed in 1947.

Soviet Doctors examining the POWs before their Transfers couldn’t understand Toma and thought he was Mentally Disabled (his “Disability” was speaking in his Native Hungarian which no other POW left in the Camp spoke.)

Instead of being returned to Hungary Toma was mistakenly sent to a Mental Hospital in Kotelnich, the Soviet Union (Present-Day Kotelnich, Russia) which was run by the NKVD (later the KGB.)

The Soviet Doctors at the Mental Hospital even changed his name from Andras Toma to András Tamás (Russian: Андраш Тамаш) so no one looking for him from Hungary would know who he was.

Toma would spend the next 53 years at the Mental Hospital in Kotelnich.

After trying to make the Soviet Doctors and Staff understand him (using Hungarian and the little bit of German he knew) he gave up and resigned himself to living in the Soviet Mental Hospital for the rest of his life.

The preserved Admission Card paints a depressing picture. It described a Man in an extreme state of Exhaustion, suffering from Delusions, eating little, not sleeping at night, and refusing to take medication. He would cry and not answer questions.

He had one of his legs amputated when in the Mental Hospital.

The Hungarian Communist Government, after hearing no word about Toma, Legally Declared him Dead in 1956 and stopped looking for him.

The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991 and Toma continued to be held in the Mental Hospital.

In 1997, a Slovakian Doctor, Karol Moravčík, visited the Mental Hospital in Russia and since Moravčík knew Hungarian he identified Toma as not a Mental Patient speaking a “Made-up Language” as the Soviet and then the Russian Doctors declared but was speaking Hungarian and was Mentally Sound.

It took many years but the Russians finally admitted their mistake and Toma was released from the Mental Hospital and arrived back in Hungary on August 11, 2000 (55 years after he had left.)

Since he had never been Discharged from the Hungarian Military and his Service had been continuous for Decades the Hungarian Minster of Defense promoted him to Sergeant Major and he received all his Back-Pay (55 years worth.)

Toma was taken care of by his Half-Sister for the few years of his life.

András Toma died on March 30, 2004 in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. He was 78 years old.