David Dushman, the last surviving soldier who took part in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 1945, has died at the age of 98, AFP reported on Sunday.
Dushman, a Red Army soldier who later became an international fencer, died on Saturday, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.
On January 27, 1945, he used his T-34 Soviet tank to mow down the electric fence of Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland, helping to set prisoners in the death camp free.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said Dushman's death was "particularly painful".
"Dushman was on the front line when the Nazi murder machinery was smashed in 1945; as the 'Hero of Auschwitz' he was one of the liberators of the concentration camp and saved countless lives," she said in a statement quoted by AFP.
"Today, he was one of the last to be able to recount this event from his own experience," she added, describing Dushman as a "brave, honest and sincere man".
Dushman was one of 69 soldiers in his division who survived the war, but suffered serious injuries. Despite this, he went on to become a top fencer in the Soviet Union and later one of the world's greatest fencing coaches, the IOC said.
Dushman lived in Austria for several years in the 1990s before relocating in 1996 to Munich, where German media said he died.
Up to four years ago, he was still going almost daily to his fencing club there to give lessons, the IOC said.