Bela Medgyessy

Bela Medgyessy was a colonel in the Hungarian People's Army during World War III. He was captured during the fighting, and sent to a prisoner of war camp outside Lyon, France. He was the senior officer at the camp for most of 1951.

Medgyessy greeted Isztvan Szolovits when he arrived in the camp in December, 1951. While unenthusiastic about Szolovits' status as a Jew, Medgyessy gave Szolovits the lay of the land, and further drafted Szolovits onto the football team the Hungarians had put together.