Title: Dr. Ákos Osváth – The Physician Who Chose Humanity
Subject: Military Hospital No. 125, Szombathely, 1944–45
Original album: 233 photographs on 37 pages
Theme: Wartime medicine, humanitarian rescue, Soviet POWs, postwar recognition
Provenance: Private wartime photo album acquired in Hungary.
Archive: TŰZKERESZT Digital Archive
The story of Dr. Ákos Osváth is not one of battlefield glory or military conquest. It is the story of a physician who, during the final and most brutal phase of the Second World War in Hungary, placed his medical oath and his conscience above fear, orders and ideology.
As a captain and physician at Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125 in Szombathely, Osváth became connected to one of the most remarkable humanitarian episodes of the final months of the war: the protection and rescue of severely wounded Soviet prisoners of war.
A Country in Ruins
.jpg)
A heavily damaged building photographed during the final phase of the war in Hungary. Images such as this illustrate the physical destruction that formed the background to the work of military hospitals and medical personnel in 1944–45.
.jpg)
2. “A Devastated Hungarian City”The destruction seen here was not unique to Budapest. During the final months of the war, many Hungarian towns and cities suffered severe damage, leaving streets, homes and public buildings in ruins. Such scenes formed the world in which military hospitals like Dr. Osváth’s carried out their work.
The Physician and His Family
Dr. Ákos Osváth was born on 5 October 1911. After completing his medical education, he entered military service as a physician in the Royal Hungarian Army on 1 October 1936. By the final phase of the war he held the rank of captain.
The surviving photographs do not present him only as an officer or doctor. They also preserve the image of a husband, a father and a private individual whose life was inseparable from the catastrophe unfolding around him.
.jpg)
Dr. Ákos Osváth photographed with members of his nursing staff and colleagues at Military Hospital No. 125. More than a simple group portrait, this image introduces the men and women whose compassion and professional duty would become central to one of the most remarkable humanitarian stories to emerge from wartime Hungary.
Military Hospital No. 125
During the autumn and winter of 1944, severely wounded Soviet prisoners of war were transferred to the 125th Hungarian Military Hospital. Their condition was desperate. Many lacked proper care, bedding and supplies. To the authorities they were enemy prisoners, but to Osváth and several members of the hospital staff they were first and foremost wounded men.
Nurses, doctors and pharmacists began to provide medicine, food, clean linen and nursing care. What began as individual acts of compassion later became a carefully organised effort to protect the prisoners from evacuation, abandonment or execution.
.jpg)
4. “Medical Personnel at Work”Hungarian military medical personnel gathered during service. Images like this show the daily routines of hospital life during a period when medical work was carried out under extreme pressure.
.jpg)
5. “Hospital Vehicles on a Muddy Road”Vehicles connected with the hospital service stand along a muddy road. Such transport was vital for moving wounded men, staff and medical supplies during the final months of the war.
.jpg)
6. “Two Hungarian Red Cross Nurses”Two Hungarian Red Cross nurses photographed outside a hospital building. Nurses played an essential role in the care of wounded soldiers and prisoners during the events connected with Military Hospital No. 125.
.jpg)
7. “Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125”Staff and wounded Soviet soldiers photographed in front of the hospital entrance. The sign reads in Russian: “Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125.” This image connects the Hungarian medical staff directly to the Soviet patients whose survival became central to the later recognition of Dr. Osváth and his colleagues.
Patients, Staff and Survival
As the front approached western Hungary in March 1945, orders were issued to evacuate the hospital westward together with retreating German forces. For the wounded Soviet prisoners, such an evacuation could have meant death.
Osváth and trusted members of the hospital staff chose another path. The wounded were hidden, cared for and protected. Some were disguised, others concealed in parts of the hospital. Discovery would likely have meant execution for the prisoners and severe consequences for those who helped them.
.jpg)
8. “Military Hospital No. 125, 1945”
Photographed outside Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125 in 1945. This contemporary photograph brings together several of the individuals whose lives became intertwined through the humanitarian rescue operation carried out during the final months of the war.
From left to right: Gabriella Gerencsér, Dr. Endre Horváth, wounded Soviet soldier Aga Kurbanov, Captain Dr. Ákos Osváth, Captain Fjodor Balasov, Mrs. István Krasznai; seated in front: Dr. Béla Egyed.
.jpg)
Medical personnel and soldiers gathered beside a hospital vehicle. The photograph may relate to transport, evacuation or patient movement during the turbulent final months of the war.
.jpg)
10. “The Hospital Group”A group portrait of hospital staff and associated personnel. Such photographs preserve the faces of those who worked within the institution where the rescue took place.
.jpg)
Medical staff photographed inside a hospital room. The blackboard and medical setting suggest the improvised and functional character of wartime hospital life, the date in the board says 10th April 1945.
.jpg)
12. “Patients in Recovery”Wounded patients and medical personnel photographed in a hospital ward. This image gives a rare view of the quieter aftermath of the rescue: men who survived, received care and remained under medical protection.
.jpg)
13. “A Moment of Peace”Patients, staff and civilians resting outdoors. After the violence of the final months of the war, such scenes suggest the fragile return of ordinary life and human connection.
Memory
Dr. Osváth did not live to receive the public recognition that later came. For many years, the story of the rescue remained largely unknown. Those involved did not present themselves as heroes; they had acted, as they later explained, because the wounded needed care.
.jpg)
14. “Military Hospital No. 125 after the Fighting”Members of the Hungarian medical staff gather outside Military Hospital No. 125 in Szombathely after the end of the war. The Red Cross flag once again flies over the hospital entrance, while the Russian-language hospital sign reflects the Soviet military administration that followed Hungary’s surrender. Among those pictured are Dr. Ákos Osváth and several of the colleagues connected with the treatment and protection of wounded Soviet prisoners of war.
This photograph was taken shortly after the end of the war and represents many of the people whose courage and professionalism made the rescue operation possible.
Recognition
Nearly twenty years after the war, the story resurfaced. Survivors and Soviet veterans identified the Hungarian medical personnel who had helped save their lives. On 28 May 1966, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognised several Hungarian citizens for their actions during the Great Patriotic War.
Dr. Ákos Osváth had already passed away. His widow therefore accepted the award on his behalf. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class.
.jpg)
The Soviet Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class, the decoration awarded posthumously to Dr. Ákos Osváth for his role in saving wounded Soviet soldiers.
.jpg)
Dr. Osváth's widow receiving the Soviet decoration on his behalf in 1966. More than two decades after the events, the humanitarian actions of Dr. Osváth and his colleagues were officially recognised.
Name: Dr. Ákos Osváth
Born: 5 October 1911
Military service: Royal Hungarian Army physician
Active duty from: 1 October 1936
Wartime rank: Captain
Institution: Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125, Szombathely
Historical event: Protection and rescue of wounded Soviet prisoners of war, 1944–45
Recognition: Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class
Awarded: Posthumously, 1966
Original album: 233 photographs on 37 pages
Collection ID: TA-CPS-001
History often remembers generals, politicians and battles. Yet the survival of many lives has just as often depended on individuals whose names remained almost forgotten. Dr. Ákos Osváth belonged to that small group of people whose humanity endured even in the darkest days of war.
This collection entered the TŰZKERESZT Archive in 2017 after being acquired through an online auction. The original album contained 233 photographs on 37 pages, but no names, locations or historical explanation beyond a single reference to Military Hospital No. 125.
The investigation began years later with an architectural detail visible in one of the photographs. By identifying the church appearing in the background, the location could be traced to Szombathely. Further research in the Hungarian historical newspaper archive Arcanum revealed contemporary newspaper articles published in 1966 identifying the physician as Captain Dr. Ákos Osváth and documenting the rescue operation that later led to his posthumous Soviet decoration.
One final discovery completed the story. The building that served as Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125 during the final months of the Second World War still stands today in Szombathely. Originally constructed as a school, it once again serves its original educational purpose as the Premontrei Rendi Szent Norbert Gimnázium. Remarkably, the entrance seen in several wartime photographs remains virtually unchanged, allowing the location to be identified with certainty more than eighty years later.
Research completed between 2017 and 2026 through archival investigation, image analysis and contemporary newspaper sources.
The former Hungarian Military Hospital No. 125 photographed in present-day Szombathely. During 1944–45 the building housed the military hospital where Captain Dr. Ákos Osváth and his colleagues treated Hungarian and Soviet wounded alike. Today the building once again serves as the Premontrei Rendi Szent Norbert Gimnázium. The entrance, visible in several photographs preserved in this collection, remains largely unchanged, creating a direct visual link between the wartime album and the present day.
.jpg)
A private family photograph of Dr. Ákos Osváth with his wife and their two children. Placed as the final image of the collection, it offers a quiet epilogue to the story and reminds the viewer that behind every historical event stood ordinary people whose lives continued long after the fighting had ended.
"Some victories are measured not by territory gained, but by lives preserved."
This permanent collection preserves not only photographs from a wartime medical album, but the memory of a physician who chose humanity when it mattered most.
TŰZKERESZT Digital Archive • Permanent Collection TA-CPS-001 • Dr. Ákos Osváth
