Zoltán Baló

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A memorial tablet to Zoltan Baló, erected on his house in Budapest

Zoltán Baló (1883-1966) was a Hungarian military officer and a Colonel of the Honvéds. He is best known for his help to Polish and French military refugees in Hungary during World War II.

Born January 23, 1883, he received military education early in his life and took part in the World War I. In mid-1920s he became a director at one of the departments of the Ministry of Defence. He also held a number of other military posts in the interbellum. Following the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War of 1939, the Hungarian government created the XXI Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, whose purpose was to help the Polish military refugees. Baló, then in the rank of Colonel, became the head of the directorate. His sympathetic stance allowed a large part of the 50,000 men strong group of Polish soldiers who reached Hungary in 1939 to escape from poorly guarded internment camps and join the Polish Army in the West [1][2]. Briefly arrested by the Germans after their takeover of Hungary in 1944, he returned to Budapest. Retired in 1946[3], he died December 10, 1966[4]. Posthumously he was promoted to the rank of Major General. After the dissolution of the Soviet system in Central Europe, Baló's merits were posthumously credited and he received several notable Polish and Hungarian medals[5], among them the Officer's Cross of the Order Zasługi[6]. One of the streets in Warsaw's borough of Ursynów is named after him.