Ivan Stepanovich Martynushkin (; born 18 January 1924) is a Russian

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

veteran and the last surviving liberator of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

, after the death of David Dushman in 2021.

Early life

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

Ryazan Governorate Ryazan Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 to 1929. Its capital was in Ryazan. Administrative division Ryazan Governorate consisted of the follo ...

. 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 The 322nd Rifle Division was a standard Red Army rifle division during World War II. It is most notable for liberating Auschwitz concentration camp as part of the 60th Army on January 27, 1945, in the course of the Vistula-Oder offensive. Prior ...

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 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

on January 18, 2024.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martynushkin, Ivan 1924 births Living people People from Ryazan Governorate People from Rybnovsky District Knights of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland 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 Russian men centenarians Soviet military personnel of World War II