Re: Last known prisoner of war

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Annelie
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Re: Last known prisoner of war

#1

Post by Annelie » 29 Oct 2002, 18:09

I really do wonder if there are any other pow's left in Russia?

I saved this article because to me it was astounding.

..............................Budapest, Hungary August 11, 2000

The last known prisoner of World War II has arrived back in Hungary after spending five decades locked away in a Russian psychiatric hosipital, Andras Tamas 75, was taken prisoner during the Soviet offensive in Hungary in l944. Tamas was taken to the hospital in Kotelnich in l947 and as not left the building since then. His native tongue was mistaken to be the muttering of a mentally disturbed person. An encounter with an Hungarian speaking Russian unlocked the mystery. A Hungarian psychiatrist visited him in the hospital and came away convinced that Tamas was an ethnic Hungarian. Hungarian authorities said they had still not unovered enought about Tamas' background but decided to issue him a Hungarian passport and bring him home for humanitarian reasons.

Once Tamas has arrived back in Hungary he showed no visible emotion. He was greeted there by quite a few people iincluding some who are convinced he is a relative. No record of Tamas' birth or any living relative has been found, and his memories date to the ravaged Hungary of the war years. "I don't know where I will live, because everything has been bombed," he said recently in his hospital room. Tamas was among prisoners of war sent by train from western Russian to a prison camp in Siberia, records indicate. He seemed to be suffering from psychological problems, so guards took him off the train when it passed near Kotelnich and left him at the hospital. Other than his name, Soviet-era records said nothing about his background. Unable to speak Russian, Tamas could not communicate with hospital staff. Later, somebody thought Tamas was Romanian and that was written in his records. For Tamas, time has stopped in l947. "He has lived here for a long time, but all his impressions, all his knowledge have remained at the level of l940's," the chief doctor of the Kotelnich hospital, Yuri Petukhov, said last week. A diplomat at the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow, Ferenc Puskas, said 20 Hungarian families had already offered to adopt him.

.........................

Amazing story which I wonder what has happened to Tamas.

Also wonder if there is a possibility that there could be just one or two more such poor souls out there somewhere in Russia locked away and after so many years probably do have psychological problems.

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Bill Medland
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#2

Post by Bill Medland » 30 Oct 2002, 09:34

A very moving story which I read about last year in a german newspaper, but not in as much detail as I have just read, thanks Annelie.

Where I work at a railroad station (Düsseldorf), we have this old man who is 85 called Erich, ask him what day it is and he has no idea, in fact he cant remember what he did six hours before!
But his memory up until May 1945 is 100% in finest detail! He could name me everyone in his Luftwaffe squadron!
Passangers aproached me and said they wanted him arrested because he was breaking the law, he was giving a Nazi salute and shouting "Heil mein Führer!"
I said I know that that is a prison sentence in Germany, but he is no Neo-Nazi, he was there, he took part in the war, and he earned the right to do what he is doing. I had a word with him, but never took him to the cells.
Regards,Bill.


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Rob S.
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#3

Post by Rob S. » 30 Oct 2002, 16:08

War has very ackward and unusual effects on people who aren't prepared....though this doesn't sound like someone who was shipped into the HJ at age 10....

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