At 21, Lieutenant Ivan Martynushkin was commander of a machine-gun company in the Red Army. He had already traveled thousands of kilometers during the war, but he never imagined that his life would be forever marked by what he was going to find out what day of the January 27, 1945.
"We moved to Poland from Krakow, and we knew absolutely nothing about these Auschwitz concentration camps. The objective of our unit was right to join a certain line and to fix our position. After passing the town of Auschwitz, we arrived at a huge field surrounded by barbed wire held by powerful concrete pillars. They were electrified barbed wire. We have seen the electrical installations in the pillars, "he recalls.
Among the many decorations and medals Ivan Martynushkin, none for the liberation of Auschwitz. Such a coin does not exist. It was not a military operation itself. The camp at that time was almost empty. The most valid prisoners were taken to other camps. Remained in Auschwitz several thousand people totally exhausted and left for dead.
"The crematoria were not enough evidence to even tells Ivan Martynushkin. The Germans could not burn as many bodies as they wanted. They piled the corpses covered the newspaper and put other corpses dessus.Tous these bodies formed heap. And they set fire ... When we arrived at Auschwitz, the snow began to fall, and the camp was covered with a white coat. Otherwise, the camp area were black, black soot and ash. Already at the camp approach, we could feel that so peculiar smell, the smell of burned flesh, the smell of burnt human bodies. This smell filled the air around the camp. "
The first meeting between the Auschwitz prisoners and their liberators was not filmed. Destitute, the soldiers had no drugs, no food to distribute to the prisoners. And the famous photos of historic moments of the camp's liberation were actually made a few days later by Soviet journalists. The authors of the images had to acknowledge later that they had been prepared and staged.
Ivan Martynushkin will remember these faces for the rest of his days, "we approached a group of prisoners. Close to their face. Blackened faces. Some were wrapped in blankets. And then we saw them. We believed see their eyes sparkle, sparkle. Something very deep in their eyes, saying how they felt a kind of happiness. But we could not communicate. They said something like: "Hungary, Hungary." But at that time I did not know exactly what that meant, "Hungarian." "
The meaning and significance of what he saw at Auschwitz, Ivan Martynushkin include the latest. He will return many times in camp. Even in the context of official commemorations. But January 27, 1945, his unit was to remain a little over an hour to Auschwitz. Before resuming his journey. World War II ends three months later.
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