David Dushman, the last surviving liberator from the Auschwitz Nazi camp, died

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David Dushman, the last living liberator from the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, died early Saturday in Munich, Germany. He was 98 years old. The death of Dushman, who came from the Soviet Union, was confirmed this Sunday by a spokesman for the Israeli Community of Munich (IKG).

Every witness he leaves us is a loss, but the farewell of David Dushman is particularly painful and with him, we lose a brave, honest and sincere man, Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Israeli Religious Community of Munich, said in a statement. to the German newspaper Abendzeitung.

On January 27, 1945, the Red Army released prisoners from Auschwitz in Poland, which was then occupied by Hitler's German regime. According to historical estimates, and n the extermination camp were killed over a million people, mostly Jews.

On that remembered date, Dushman - a Soviet soldier of Jewish origin - smashed the electrified fence surrounding the Auschwitz death camp with a T-34: a Red Army tank.

For his heroic deeds, Dushman had been made an honorary member of the IKG, in Munich. He will always be remembered as the hero of Auschwitz, since he was part of the liberators of the concentration camp, saving countless lives. For many years he was one of the few who could speak of this event in the first person, added Charlotte Knobloch.

Dushman and his family also experienced marginalization, defamation, and exclusion in the former Soviet Union for being Jewish. His father, a doctor, was a victim of the Stalinist purges and died in a labor camp in the north of the Arctic Circle.

Post War, fencing

Dushman, distinguished for his bravery with dozens of medals and decorations of honor, began a new life after the world contest. He trained for almost forty years , between 1952 and 1988, the Soviet Union women's national fencing team and was a trainer of elite athletes.

In his role as coach, he lived closely with another event linked to the atrocities against the Israeli people at the 1972 Munich Olympics: the kidnapping of eleven Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist commando that ended with 17 deaths.

Dushman has lived in Munich for the past 25 years and frequently attended schools as a witness to the war, a task that was very important to him personally.