On Jan. 27, 1945, troops of the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, one of the most infamous of the Nazi concentration camps. The unspeakable horrors they witnessed shocked even those battle-hardened fighters. David Dushman — the last known surviving liberator of Auschwitz, a Soviet soldier at the time, and himself a Jew — passed away recently at age 98.
Quote: “By the time the Soviets arrived, Auschwitz and its satellite camps were nearly empty. The Germans had cleared it out earlier in the month as the Red Army approached, forcing 60,000 prisoners on a ‘death march’ to other concentration camps, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Nazis had meant to kill the prisoners who were too weak or ill to walk, but they ran out of time and left behind about 7,000. These were the ‘skeletons’ Dushman found.”
Sources: Wikipedia (introduction), The Washington Post (quotation)
Learn more about the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp from Wikipedia. ►
Watch “To liberate Auschwitz. David Dushman drove a Soviet tank through its [electrified barbed wire fence]” [3:05]. ►
Read “To liberate Auschwitz, David Dushman drove a Soviet tank through its barbed wire. Horrors awaited inside.” ►
Watch “The Liberation Of Auschwitz — Bringing Freedom to the Death Camp” [11:08]. ►
Photo: thetimes.co.uk
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