David Dushman, the last surviving Allied soldier involved in the liberation of Auschwitz, has died aged 98.
The Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria said on Sunday that Dushman had died at a Munich hospital on Saturday.
As a young Red Army soldier, Dushman flattened the forbidding fence around the notorious Nazi death camp in Poland with his tank on January 27, 1945.
David Dushman, the last surviving Allied soldier involved in the liberation of Auschwitz, has died. He was 98. https://t.co/IFJuemyo1p
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) June 6, 2021
After the war he helped train the Soviet Union's women's national fencing team and survived the attack on the Munich Olympics.
Later in life, Dushman visited schools to tell students about the war and the horrors of the Holocaust.
David Dushman, last surviving Auschwitz liberator, dies aged 98 https://t.co/SMdJkPa0Ws
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 6, 2021
Learn about final days of the German #Auschwitz camp, tragedy of evacuation, liberation by the Soviet Army & fate of some 7,500 liberated prisoners: https://t.co/hyEaUWEVbu pic.twitter.com/wx3MvItAk1
'Every witness to history who passes on is a loss, but saying farewell to David Dushman is particularly painful,' said Charlotte Knobloch, a former head of Germany's Central Council of Jews.
'Dushman was right on the front lines when the National Socialists' machinery of murder was destroyed.'
Along with other heroes of Auschwitz, Dushman has saved many lives, she said.
Details on funeral arrangements and survivors were not immediately known.
This article has been adapted from its original source.