The elegantly grayed 94-year-old lives in an apartment in a Philadelphia suburb, a man who answers his emails so quickly that he could be the manager of a small company. But 75 years ago, Don Greenbaum was among the U.S. troops who liberated the Dachau concentration camp. A Purple Heart lies on the table in his living room, the medal received by soldiers who are injured in battle. Greenbaum received his after being struck by German shrapnel in November 1944. Next to it are pictures from the concentration camp in Dachau, images taken by medics of the dead and the emaciated. Greenbaum is careful to keep safe: They are proof that his memories aren't wrong – that the horrors he saw with his own eyes really did happen.
Here, we present the recollections of two of those soldiers, each of whom participated in the liberation of a different concentration camp. Don Greenbaum of the U.S. was there when Dachau was freed, and the former Red Army soldier Ivan Stepanovich Martynushkin of Moscow helped liberate Auschwitz.
Ivan Stepanovich Martynushkin, 96, is still mobile and his mind is sharp, just like Greenbaum's. He lives alone in a newly refurnished apartment on the fourth floor of a residential complex – with no elevator. He leaves his apartment twice a day. His living room contains mementos from his military past, including a Maxim machine gun of the kind used by his company: "Heavy and impractical," as he says. There are also photos, including a portrait of him in uniform, his medals on display. There is also a picture of him with Russian President Vladimir Putin along with family photos of his two daughters – one of whom lives next door – and his three great-granddaughters.
