We [...] immediately drove on, to hunt fascists

June 6, 2021 9:56 PM

Legendary fencing coach David Dushman, 98, and the last surviving Soviet soldier involved in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, has died.

One of just 69 men in his 12,000-strong division to survive the war, Mr Dushman suffered serious injuries during the conflict

posted by Mitheral (26 comments total)

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posted by vrakatar at 11:07 PM on June 6, 2021

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And damn, I wish I could rifle through newspapers' advance obits and send fan postcards to some people before they're dead.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:32 PM on June 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

If we may, the title quote un-ellipsized in here too: "We [threw them all of our canned food and] immediately drove on, to hunt fascists."
posted by away for regrooving at 11:36 PM on June 6, 2021 [10 favorites]

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posted by filtergik at 12:26 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by GenjiandProust at 2:37 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by Gelatin at 4:43 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by Kattullus at 5:00 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by Don.Kinsayder at 5:34 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by wicked_sassy at 5:36 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by double bubble at 6:35 AM on June 7, 2021

I guess it's up to other generations to hunt the fascists now. I hope we have the stomach for it.
posted by dazed_one at 6:46 AM on June 7, 2021 [10 favorites]

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posted by Glinn at 6:52 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by lon_star at 7:00 AM on June 7, 2021

May his memory be a blessing.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:18 AM on June 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

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posted by Canageek at 9:09 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:18 AM on June 7, 2021

May his memory be a blessing -- and an inspiration.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:51 AM on June 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by faceplantingcheetah at 10:16 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:27 AM on June 7, 2021

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posted by Ahmad Khani at 10:49 AM on June 7, 2021

Four decades spent training Olympians, and he was still giving lessons into his 90s. Dushman photos in this obituary, including: young adult; fencer in the 1950s; fencer in the 2010s; Olympic trainer, solo and with team. There's a one-two punch in the FPP's Stripes.com link:

"[Dushman] was seriously wounded three times but survived the war, one of just 69 soldiers in his 12,000-strong division.

"His father — a former military doctor— was meanwhile imprisoned and later died in a Soviet punishment camp after falling victim to one of Josef Stalin's purges."

In 1938, Dushman's sports-physician father was taken to "a camp north of the Artic Circle" [the Vorkuta Gulag?] and "died there after ten years, completely emaciated and exhausted." [...]
"We did not fight against Germans, but against fascism.'" -- David Dushman, 2018 interview
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:19 AM on June 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by detachd at 2:58 PM on June 7, 2021

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posted by gudrun at 5:45 PM on June 7, 2021

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posted by bcd at 7:16 PM on June 7, 2021

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posted by bryon at 10:42 PM on June 7, 2021

Primo Levi has a good account of the weird time between when the SS fled and the Red Army came. He had been left to die in the infirmary in Monowitz, but he was not that ill, and got better. He and other prisoners scrounged food - they found some buried potatoes in addition to what they could scavenge from kitchens - and cared for the sick people. There weren't many prisoners in the camp when liberation came; most of them had been sent on forced evacuations. Being left for dead in the infirmary was quite possibly a better risk.
posted by thelonius at 11:05 AM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]