What do you call someone who has been in custody as a prisoner of war?
In Persian, someone who has once been a prisoner of war and now is free and not a prisoner anymore is called "Azadeh", literally meaning liberated, free(d). What is the English equivalent for this sense?
Solution 1:
You call them a "a former POW", the acronym standing for "prisoner of war":
a person who is captured and held by an enemy during war, especially a member of the armed forces.