David Dushman

David Dushman (1 April 1923 — 4 June 2021) was a German Red Army soldier and last surviving liberator of the Auschwitz concentration camp until his death in 2021.

Early life and Second World War

His father was a Jewish general, sports physician, and military doctor in the Red Army. His father was deported to a Gulag in 1938, where he died ten years later.

He became a volunteer in the Red Army as a tank driver, and, during the Second World War, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. He received more than fourty decorations and distinctions, including the Order of the Patriotic War. He also participated in the Battle of Kursk.

In the early afternoon of 27 January 1945, Dushman drove with his T-34 tank over the electric fence of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in occupied Poland, thereby initiating the liberation of the camp. In the camp, he witnessed starving people, piles of dead bodies, and later said "we threw them all our canned food and immediately went on to hunt down the fascists", but was not aware at the time of the real purpose of the camp or the scale of the atrocities.

He suffered severe injuries as a result of the war, and only 69 soldiers in his Red Army division, including Dushman, survived the war.

Later life

Symbol of fencing at the Olympics

After the war, Dushman became a professional fencer. He was the trainer of the national women's fencing team of the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1988. In his capacity as fencing trainer, he witnessed the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics. He was staying right across from the Israeli athletes and described that he was "horrified" by the events, himself being very conscient about his Jewish background at that time.

From 1996 until his death on 4 June 2021, he lived with his wife Zoja in Munich-Neuperlach.