Majdanek was also known as the Majdan Tatarski camp, a hard labor, and death camp located in Lublin, Poland. Majdanek death camp was in operation from 1941 to 1944. It was established by Heinrich Himmler. The city Lublin was 3 km from the camp. The reason for the camps was to destroy enemies of the Third Reich and to be a part in the extermination of the Jews. People in the city all knew what was happening to the prisoners. They could see it, hear it, and smell it.
The camp was run by the Watten-SS who was helped by Lithuanian collaborators. About 360,000 people were shot, beaten, starved, or gassed to death. After they were murdered, their bodies were buried in mass graves, and others were burned in a crematorium. Majdanek was one of the most sadistic because the SS killed infants and children before their mothers' eyes.
The camp was made up of five sections with 144 barracks. Each barrack was able to hold up to 45,000 prisoners. It was first built in the winter of 1940 to 1941, to house the prisoners of war. Then on July 1941, the Russian prisoners were brought there. And soon it became a camp for the Holocaust prisoners. Majdanek was protected from the double barbed-wire fence, which was connected to a high-voltage transmission line. There were 19 watchtowers, each 26.5 feet high, with mobile searchlights and 130 illumination fixtures.
At Majdanek, there were 100,000 and 150,000 Jews from Poland and Western Europe, over 100,000 non-Jewish Poles, and 10,000 Russian prisoners of war. Many of them died from exposure, starvation, exhaustion, disease, and the harsh conditions. But many of the Jews were murdered in the gas chambers. 60 percent of the prisoners died from starvation and the other 40 percent died from gas chambers, or they were executed.
In the camp, Majdanek had seven gas chambers, gas vans, and two gallows. When prisoners arrived, many were taken to the disinfection room, which were the showers. Thousands of people who were showered, before they were murdered in the gas chambers. The Germans realized that carbon monoxide and Zyklon B gas worked better on warm and moist bodies rather than when the prisoners were forced into the dry gas chambers.
The worst incident was on November 3, 1943, the "Bloody Wednesday." The Germans also called this day the Erntefest, or the harvest festival. 18,000 Jews were murdered in a single day. The SS shot the Jews in a group of one hundred. They were shot in pits while loudspeakers played dance music, "Beer Barrel Polka," to drown out the screams, and to reduce the noise from the shooting.
The Soviet Army liberated Majdanek on July 24, 1944. At that time, only a few hundred Jewish inmates were still alive. Before the Germans abandoned the camp, the staff tried to destroy evidence, by destroying documents, set buildings on fire, and the large crematorium. But because of their hurry, they forgot to destroy the gas chambers and other large parts of the prisoners' barracks.
Today, Majdanek is one of the best-preserved camps. Several major sections are still intact. They house a museum that pays tribute to those who were murdered there. The Original gas chambers and crematoria still stand on the highest hill of the camp. Next to the gas chamber, building is a huge mound of ashes from the crematoria.
Epstein, Eric J. and Philip Rosen. "Majdanek." Dictionary of the Holocaust: Bibliography, Geography, and Terminology. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Wigoder, Geoffrey. "Majdanek." The Holocaust. 3rd Vol. Connecticut: Grolier Educational, 1997.
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