From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Majdanek Mausoleum, containing the ashes of cremated victims

Majdanek fence in the winter (2005)

Majdanek (originally Konzentrationslager Lublin) is the site of a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, roughly 2.5 miles (four kilometers) away from the center of the Polish city Lublin.

Unlike many other Nazi concentration and extermination camps, Majdanek is not hidden away in some remote forest or obscured from view by natural barriers, nor was it surrounded by a "security zone." It was established in October 1941, at Heinrich Himmler's orders, following his visit to Lublin in July 1941. Majdanek was an SS-run prisoner of war camp, under the command of Karl Otto Koch. In February 1943, it was turned into a concentration camp.

The camp's name derives from a Lublin district called Majdan Tatarski, and was given it in 1941 by the locals, who were aware of its existence. The original German name of the camp was "Konzentrationslager Lublin" (Concentration Camp Lublin).

At its peak operation, it held about 50,000 inmates. In the early months of 1942, plans were made and approved to expand Majdanek to contain as many as 250,000 inmates. Between April 1942 and July 1944, extermination took place in Majdanek using gas chambers and crematoria. Majdanek was one of two death camps that used Zyklon B in its gas chambers. However, carbon monoxide was also used.

A Soviet soldier posed at Majdanek holding the cover of the vents through which Zyklon B was inserted. The picture was published in the London press in October 1944

According to the data from the official Majdanek State Museum about 300,000 inmates passed through the camp, with over 40% Jews and about 35% Poles. Other citizens of non-Jewish origin included Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, Austrians, French, Slovenians, Italians and Dutch people.

Majdanek provided forced labor for munitions works and the Steyr-Daimler-Puch weapons factory.

The camp was evacuated since April 1, 1944 and liquidated in July but the crematoria were all that could be destroyed before the Soviet Red Army arrived, making Majdanek the best-preserved camp of the Holocaust. Although 1,000 inmates were evacuated on a death march, the Red Army found thousands of inmates, mainly POWs, still in the camp and ample evidence of the mass murder that had occurred there.

The Soviets in 1944 immediately converted this camp into a NKVD concentration camp, where thousands of fighters of the Polish underground Armia Krajowa (AK) and NSZ were imprisoned.

In October 2005, four survivors of Majdanek returned to the site of the camp and enabled archaeologists to find some 50 objects which had been buried by inmates, including watches, earrings, and wedding rings.

Because of a lack of records, the death toll at Majdanek has always been more difficult to estimate than that of other extermination camps. The Soviets initially overestimated the number of deaths, claiming in July 29, 1944 that there were no less than 400,000 Jewish victims, and the official Soviet count was of 1,500,000 victims of different nationalities, though this estimate was never taken seriously by scholars. In 1961 Raul Hilberg estimated the number of the Jewish victims as 50,000, though other sources (including the camp museum) officially estimated 100,000 Jewish victims and up to 200,000 non-Jews killed.

The most recent research by the Head of Scientific Department at Majdanek Museum, historian Tomasz Kranz indicates that there were 78,000 victims, 59,000 of whom were Jews[1]. The differences in various estimates stem from different methods used for estimation and the amounts of evidence available to the researchers. The Soviet figures relied on the most crude methodology, also used to make early Auschwitz estimates - it was assumed that the number of victims more or less corresponded to the crematoria capacities. Later researchers tried to take much more evidence into account, using records of deportations and population censuses, as well as the Nazis own records. Hilberg's 1961 estimate, using these records, aligns closely with Kranz's report.

1. Karl Otto Koch (September 1941 to July 1942)
2. Max Koegel (August 1942 to October 1942)
3. Hermann Florstedt (October 1942 to September 1943)
4. Martin Weiss (September 1943 to May 1944)
5. Arthur Liebehenschel (May 1944 to July 22, 1944)

In October 1942, several female SS troopers arrived from the Ravensbruck camp in Germany, where they were trained. These women included Elsa Erich, Hermine Braunsteiner, Hildegard Lächert and Rosy Suess. When the Soviets liberated Majdanek, they found unending evidence that pointed to the ruthless attitude of the female overseers.

Electrical fence	Majdanek guard tower	Majdanek crematorium	Inside of the crematorium
Majdanek gas chamber with blue Zyklon B residue	Dissection table	Shoes of the camp victims	View from the entrance
Majdanek memorial

In December 2005, construction works started to build a large trade and entertainment complex near Lipowa (named Lindenstraße during the occupation) and Sklodowskiej streets in Lublin, where in the years 1940-1944 the forced labour camp [2] existed. This camp was a sub-camp of KL Majdanek. The main investor of the complex is Plaza Centers. According to their website [3], the Plaza Centers Group is a member of the Europe Israel Group of companies, which is controlled by its founder, Mr Mordechay Zisser.

• List of Nazi-German concentration camps

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

KZ Majdanek

• March of Remembrance and Hope Holocaust Education Site. A student's account of the inaugural March of Remembrance and Hope. Pictures and commentary of visit to Majdanek and other Holocaust sites.
• Official Majdanek Museum
• Communique of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for Investigating the Crimes Committed by the Germans in the Majdanek Extermination Camp in Lublin
• An overview of Majdanek at about.com
• "Majdanek and Lublin", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• News item about the archaeological discovery of buried items.
• Anti-Defamation League objects to production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' to be performed at Majdanek. In response to these concerns the performance did not take place.

• Tomasz Kranz, Ewidencja zgonow i smiertelnosc wiezniow KL Lublin, Zeszyty Majdanka, 2005, vol. 23, pp. 7-53.

Coordinates: 51.220325° N 22.60007° E