Andor Mohos

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Andor Mohos was born Andor Windisch on 25 March 1920 in Soltvadkert, Hungary. After completing his law studies in 1943, he was conscripted into the Royal Hungarian Army, joining the 4th Motor Transport Battalion in Pécs. In March 1944, he entered the military administration officers’ school in Budapest.

In October 1944, Mohos became the food-supply officer of an improvised military labour battalion formed in Pécsvárad. Its men dug defensive trenches as Soviet forces advanced through Hungary. Responsible for feeding several hundred men during the retreat, he later recalled that he never took part in combat himself. His unit withdrew into Austria, where he was captured by Soviet forces at Steyr in May 1945.

Instead of returning home, Mohos was transported through Romania and across the Black Sea to Soviet prisoner-of-war camps near Tkvarcheli in Abkhazia, then part of Soviet Georgia. He endured approximately two years of captivity and forced labour, working in a brickworks and a sawmill. Following serious illness and medical treatment, he was repatriated in 1947 and officially recognised as a disabled war veteran.

After the war, Mohos resumed his legal career and devoted many years to helping former prisoners of war, disabled veterans, war widows and orphans obtain benefits and compensation. Promoted to first lieutenant in retirement in 1995, he received the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit in 2018 in recognition of his service.