David Dushman was a tank commander during the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp on January 27, 1945.
The last surviving liberator of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, the legendary Soviet swordsman David Dushman, has died, AFP reports. Dushman, a Russian Jew, died at the age of 98 in Munich, where he had lived for several years, the Jewish community in the southern German city said today.
“Every witness of this age who leaves us is a great loss, but saying goodbye to David Dushman is especially painful,” said community leader Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor herself. She stressed that Dushman “has saved countless lives.”
“He was one of the last to be able to recount these events from his own experience,” Knobloch said, deploring the loss of “a brave and honest man.”
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A native of the former Soviet Union, David Dushman fought during World War II against Nazi Germany. He took part in the famous battle of Stalingrad – a turning point in the deadliest armed conflict in human history. At the time, a 21-year-old tank commander, Dushman was among the liberators of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in modern-day Poland on January 27, 1945. The Soviet army found about 7,000 survivors in the camp, where more than 1 million people died.
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After the war, Dushman studied medicine and sports. He became a Soviet fencing champion in 1951, after which he coached the USSR women’s national team, which won many Olympic titles.
“I was deeply saddened by the death of David Dushman,” said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee. The German, a former swordsman, recalled his meeting with Enemy in 1970: “He immediately offered me his friendship and advice, despite his experience of the war and of Auschwitz – a deeply humane gesture I will never forget.”
After moving to Munich, David Dushman coached a fencing school until he was 94 years old.
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Source: BTA
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