David Dushman, a 96-year-old veteran, tried to stop his tears when he recalled the eyes of the prisoner at the "death camp" Auschwitz 75 years ago.

Dushman, now living in Munich, Germany, is a Soviet Red Army veteran and one of the few WWII soldiers alive. He joined the Red Army in 1941 after the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union. Dushman participated in the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945 and so far does not explain why Nazi Germany could have committed such a crime.

"When we came here, we looked over the fence and saw many prisoners locked there. We used tanks to break the fence, then gave them food and continued to fight," Dushman said at his home. in Munich, southern Germany, where he has lived since 1996.

"They stood there in prison clothes, leaving only gaunt eyes to look at us. That scene was very haunting. We had not previously known about the existence of Auschwitz," Dushman recalls. .

More than 1.1 million people including men, women and children died at Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration and execution camp in Poland. About 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany.

When asked why the Nazis built Auschwitz, Dushman was confused. "It's hard to explain when I'm not a politician. I really can't explain why this camp was built," Dushman said, hoping that the concentration camp would never show up again.

Shortly after arriving at Auschwit, Dushman received orders to continue his march toward Berlin. As one of the 69 surviving soldiers of the 12,000-unit tank unit, Dushman was seriously injured and had to have a lung removed. However, that did not stop him from becoming a professional fencing athlete, having attended the Olympics.

"I made it a habit to practice for a minute every day. Gradually, I reached my professional level and won the fencing championship in Russia in 1951," Dushman said.

Dushman may have had a new life after the war but the memory of the old war still haunts him. He used to meet his former teammates in Moscow, Russia, but now they are all dead.

"I often receive congratulatory letters from Russian President Putin on the War Day in May 9, the day marking the end of World War II," he said as he looked at the letter with pride.