András Toma was the last known prisoner of war from World War II. He wasn’t released until the year 2000. Toma had served in the Royal Hungarian Army, and on January 11, 1945, he was captured by the Russian Red Army.
In January 1947, he was moved from a prison camp to a mental hospital in Russia. Because people in hospitals were no longer listed as prisoners of war, Hungary lost track of him. They thought he had died and officially declared him dead in 1954.
It wasn’t until August 11, 2000, that a Czech language expert heard him speaking in the hospital and realized he was Hungarian. Since Toma had never learned to speak Russian, and no one at the hospital spoke Hungarian, it seems he hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone in more than 50 years.
Toma was brought back to Hungary. DNA tests helped find his family, and they welcomed him home. Since he had never been officially released from the army, the Hungarian Minister of Defense promoted him to sergeant major and gave him all the money he had earned over the years.
Toma was 74 years old when he came home. He went to live with his half-sister, Anna, who took care of him until he passed away in 2004.