Zoltán Baló

Zoltán Baló was born on 1 January 1923, his father was a professional officer. He graduated from the Bolyai Technical Academy after the Military High School and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1943. He took part in the unit's battles in Arad and Tiszántúli, and then carried out fortification work on the Attila Line in front of the capital. On 13 January 1945, he was wounded by hand grenade shells during a reconnaissance operation on the Pest side, and was released from prisoner of war status by the Soviets in the summer of 1945. While still in hospital, he enlisted in the new army and served continuously from July 1945, taking part in several flood relief operations. He was retrained as a cartographic officer and in 1948 was awarded the bronze medal of the Republican Medal of Merit.

In 1947 he joined the SZDP, and after the merger of the two workers' parties he became a member of the MDP. He was a member of the Hungarian Soviet Friendship Society and the Freedom Fighters' Association. In 1952, he was expelled from the party as a 'class enemy' - while his father was discharged from the army in 1944 for giving too many benefits to Polish and Western Allied prisoners of war. In 1953 he was also dismissed from the army and took a job as a surveyor. After 1956, he was stripped of his rank on the grounds that he was a member of the Workers' Council and "in favour of the removal of the communists". In his appeal, he argued in vain that the current shop steward was a member of the Workers' Council, that a party member had been elected chairman and that the minutes did not contain anything discrediting him, but his arguments were ignored.