- Title: Red Army soldier recalls moment his tank broke through Auschwitz fence
- Date: 15th January 2020
- Summary: MUNICH, GERMANY (JANUARY 14, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RED ARMY VETERAN, AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR AND FENCING CHAMPION DAVID DUSHMAN POSING WITH EPEE BOOK WITH DUSHMAN'S PORTRAIT ON COVER DUSHMAN AND HIS FRIEND VALENTINA LIPOVIZKA FLIPPING THROUGH BOOK VARIOUS OF PICTURES IN BOOK DUSHMAN DUSHMAN AND LIPOVIZKA READING BOOK JUBILEE MEDAL DEDICATED TO 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1945 VICTORY OVER NAZI GERMANY VARIOUS OF DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "We, the 1st Belorusian Front, were traveling a little bit further north of Auschwitz and our commander received a message saying that preparations were being made to kill the prisoners and we needed to help them. And five tanks, including my tank, headed further south. When we arrived we saw the fence and these unfortunate people, we broke through the fence with our tanks. We gave food to the prisoners and continued. The 1st Ukrainian Front looked after the rest." DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "I'm not a politician, it's hard for me to say. Of course, it's completely incomprehensible. The only thing I'm completely sure about is that the German people, just like the Russian people, are completely innocent in this war. The politicians are to blame." DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW AS SEEN THROUGH CAMERA DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "We didn't know that Auschwitz existed. In Russian it's called "Osventsim" We didn't know (about it). When saw it. When I was in Germany for the first time, I watched a German movie, about Buchenwald, that was really terrible. We didn't know that. What did we see? We were in tanks, what could we see?" DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "They (the prisoners) were standing there, all of them in (prisoner) uniforms, only eyes, only eyes, very narrow - that was very terrible, very terrible. And I hope, that this will never (happen) again in life." MILITARY MEDALS PINNED ON DUSHMAN'S JACKET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "After the war, I was seriously wounded, my right lung was punctured, they amputated the lower section (of my lung). I couldn't walk at all because I got out of breath. I started…I made up my own workout routing for one minute per day. So very, very gradually, slowly, slowly I reached a point where in 1951 I became the champion of Russia (in fencing)." DUSHMAN GIVING INTERVIEW MILITARY MEDALS PINNED ON DUSHMAN'S JACKET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "I frequently wasn't allowed abroad because I had two stigmas. Firstly, I was Jewish, secondly, I was a son of an Enemy of the people. My father, who was one of the first recipients of the Order of the Red Banner during the war, during the Revolution, he was repressed and in 1938 and sent to a (labour) camp. I was the son of an Enemy of the people. It was a terrifying stigma here. My father was only rehabilitated in 1953, he received a document saying he was a trustworthy person not guilty of anything, but it didn't help because he had already died." MILITARY MEDALS PINNED ON DUSHMAN'S JACKET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP LIBERATOR, DAVID DUSHMAN, SAYING: "There has been no one for a long time now, there is no one left, there is no one. We used to meet every year in Moscow. There has been no one left for many years now. Tank crews didn't live long. Everything was over pretty quickly. There is no one left, no one, unfortunately. There is also no one left from my class, I'm the only one."
- Embargoed: 29th January 2020 09:38
- Keywords: Auschwitz David Dushman Germany Red Army Russia Soviet soldier Vladimir Putin WW2 World War Two holocaus
- Location: MUNICH, GERMANY
- City: MUNICH, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001BWAALA1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: His jacket glistening with war medals, 96-year old David Dushman holds back the tears as he remembers the eyes of emaciated prisoners at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz which he helped liberate 75 years ago.
The Soviet Jew is one of the few remaining soldiers who freed the camp in January 1945 and still he struggles to explain how such a catastrophe could happen.
Dushman, who later became an Olympic fencer, joined the Red Army in 1941 after Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.
"When we arrived we saw the fence and these unfortunate people, we broke through the fence with our tanks. We gave food to the prisoners and continued," Dushman told Reuters from his home in Munich, southern Germany.
"They were standing there, all of them in (prisoner) uniforms, only eyes, only eyes, very narrow - that was very terrible, very terrible," recalled Dushman.
More than 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives at Auschwitz, in today's Poland, which was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centres.
Some six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
"We didn't know that Auschwitz existed," recalled Dushman in his flat in Munich, Germany, where he has lived since 1996.
Asked why Auschwitz happened, Dushman is flummoxed.
"I'm not a politician, it's hard for me to say. Of course it's completely incomprehensible," he said, adding he hoped nothing like it would ever happen again.
Soon after arriving at Auschwitz, Dushman was ordered to leave and head on to liberate Berlin.
One of just 69 men in his 12,000-strong column of tanks to survive the war, Dushman was seriously wounded and he had to have part of one lung removed, but it did not stop him becoming a professional fencer.
"I couldn't walk at all because I got out of breath. I started … I made up my own workout routing for one minute per day. So very, very gradually, slowly, slowly I reached a point where in 1951 I became the champion of Russia (in fencing)."
Dushman may have forged a new life but the scenes he witnessed in World War Two are still with him. He used to meet old comrades in Moscow every year but these days noone is left.
"I receive congratulations from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin every year on Victory Day. May 9 is the (anniversary of the) end of the Second World War," he said, looking with pride at the special letter.
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