Ivan Stepanovich Martynushkin (; born ) is a Russian

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran and the last surviving liberator of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, after the death of

David Dushman David Aleksandrovich Dushman (russian: Давид Александрович Душман; 1 April 19234 June 2021) was a Soviet Red Army soldier and a fencing trainer of the Soviet Olympic team. Dushman assisted in the liberation of the Auschwi ...

in 2021.

Early life

Martynushkin was born on 18 January 1924 in the village of ,

Ryazan Governorate Ryazan Governorate (russian: link=no, Рязанская губерния, ''Ryazanskaya guberniya'', Government of Ryazan) was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, wh ...

. In 1942, he graduated from the Khabarovsk machine-gun and mortar school. He was sent to the front in 1943. He served in the 1087th Rifle Regiment of the 322nd Rifle Division and initially commanded a machine gun company, then a machine gun platoon. He was wounded twice and received a concussion.

The liberation of Auschwitz

On 27 January 1945 at the age of 21, Martynushkin was among the first Soviet soldiers who liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Recollections

Decades after the liberation, Martynushkin shared recollections through interviews.

“It was huge. It went on and on for kilometers. We started to see groups of people when we reached the fence. They came up to us dressed in prison stripes, some had other clothes on top. ... After being in such a hell, constantly threatened by death, they were worn, depleted people. The only thing to them were those eyes that reflected a kind of joy — of being freed, the joy that hell had ended and they remained alive.” he said. ... Back then when we saw the ovens, our first thought was: ‘Oh well, so they are crematoriums. So people died and they didn’t bury them all.’ We didn’t know then that those ovens were specially built for the killing of people, to burn those who had been gassed, that kind of systematic killing.” "We saw emaciated people -- very thin, tired, with blackened skin. They were dressed in all sorts of different ways -- someone in just a robe, someone else with a coat or a blanket draped over their robe. You could see happiness in their eyes. They understood that their liberation had come, that they were free." "But what did I feel when I saw these people in the camp? I felt compassion and pity understanding how these people's fate unfolded. Because I could have ended up in the same situation. I fought in the Soviet army. I could have been taken prisoner and they could have also thrown me into the camp."

Later life

Martynushkin turned 100 on January 18, 2024.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martynushkin, Ivan 1924 births Living people People from Ryazan Governorate People from Rybnovsky District Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Soviet military personnel of World War II Men centenarians Russian centenarians