Hungarian PoW to be reunited with family

The identity of a Hungarian PoW who spent 53 years in a Russian psychiatric hospital has been confirmed, but the old man barely knows he will soon return to his family.

The identity of a Hungarian PoW who spent 53 years in a Russian psychiatric hospital has been confirmed, but the old man barely knows he will soon return to his family.

"The war has ended for Andras Toma and now he can start a quiet life with his family," Andras Veer, director of Hungary's National Psychiatry and Neurology Institute, told reporters yesterday, announcing the results of DNA and other tests. Mr Toma, 75, sat under a tree in a nearby courtyard, oblivious to what was going on.

Hungary has been following the story of the old man who was forgotten by the world until a Slovak doctor treating him in Russia realised he spoke a little Hungarian. Eventually, Mr Toma was returned to Hungary and identity tests began.

The DNA test was the last, and Andras Toma will rejoin his brother and sister. He was born in a village called Sulyanbokor in eastern Hungary and joined the German-led Hungarian army. He was captured by Soviet troops in Poland in 1945 and wound up in a hospital in Kotelnich, 450 miles from Moscow with schizophrenia.

His brother Janos said: "It was difficult to wait, but we're very happy now. I wish the same could happen to others who lost relatives in the war." (Reuters)