Times Online - We saw countless unlit bonfires with layers of logs and corpses

One of the first Russians to enter Auschwitz recalls his slowly dawning horror. IN HIS worst nightmares, Genry Koptev could not have imagined what awaited him when he was ordered to advance towards a point on the map marked Auschwitz in January 1945. (...) “They cried, they laughed, they were speaking in different languages, saying thank you. The noise was huge,” recalled Mr Koptev, now 78, one of the few surviving members of the 322nd division of the Soviet Army that liberated Auschwitz. “They only resembled people,” he told The Times. “Their skin was so thin, you could see their veins through it and their eyes were sticking out because the tissue around it had sunk. When they stretched out their hands, you could see every bone, joint and sinew.” This week, Mr Koptev and five other Russian veterans will relive those moments, harrowing and joyful, when they take part in commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. For him it will be a proud occasion, a chance to remind the world of the decisive role that the Soviet Army played in defeating Nazi Germany and of the 27 million of its people who died.