[romanzubenko]

fwiw according to Russian news[0] workers knew he was Hungarian, and reached out to Hungarian officials to claim him, but didn't hear back. According to article at the time when Hungary was prepping to join EU, ex nazi PoW was not a priority.

He only was "rediscovered", when Russian hospital personnel got him speaking Hungarian on camera for Russian news, and eventually news segment was picked up in Hungary and 80 Hungarian families came forward to claim him as a missing relative.

[0] https://ren.tv/news/lifestyle/887400-poslednii-plennyi-vtoro...

[kgeist]

The article also says the Hungarian side later confirmed he did have a mental illness but it's RenTV which is not a very trustable source so one should take it with a grain of salt.

[Filligree]

After fifty years locked up, of course he had a mental illness. It's amazing he was still sapient.

[stavros]

Unfortunately, I think it's likely that many of us would have mental problems if we went fifty years without talking to another human.