Category: Lublin

What is undeniable is that these Prussian blue stains have been caused by the use of Zyklon B. This is now known to be what was used to kill hundreds of thousands of people in gas chambers at locations such as Auschwitz Birkenau, but it was originally used as a cyanide based substance used to delouse clothes.

And this area of the camp are barracks 41, with signage indicating that this is where prisoners were gassed. However, there is some considerable argument about whether this can possibly be true, and on the camp’s own web-site there’s a document saying:

“It is certain, however, that gas chambers were not used for extermination after the executions of 3 November 1943 and that the chamber adjoining the shower room in barracks No. 41 and the chamber in the west part of the bunker were used for the disinfection of blankets and clothes, including those belonging to murdered Jews. These were disinfected using Zyklon B. First, the chamber was warmed up with heated air and, after disinfection was complete; the gas was removed through openings in the roof with the use of a ventilation fan.”

So although it’s clear that significant numbers of people were killed at Majdanek, I’m not sure that this area is where they actually were murdered. The blue stains do appear to be from when the room was used to delouse blankets and clothing, although it is possible that killings took place earlier on.

I have to admit to be entirely confused by much of the signage at Majdanek, I ended up with far more questions than answers.

Later on during the war the whole concept of showers in concentration camps took a sinister turn as it was where prisoners were killed using poisonous gas. Here at Majdanek though these showers were intended to clean and disinfect prisoners, usually new arrivals.

The shower heads and there are numerous reports that these dispensed water that was either freezing cold or boiling hot.

The large sinks, which were also used to bathe prisoners to disinfect them.

The prisoners would walk along the wooden slated floor before being herded out of the room. It seems that later on during the war the prisoners were given the opportunity to take more showers to try and get rid of the problem of lice, although since the living accommodation was riven with them it seems a slightly forlorn exercise.

A photo from one of the barrack buildings at Majdanek. Initially the prisoners at the camp needed to sleep on straw filled mattresses on the floor, but from early 1942 this bunk bed arrangements was introduced. Each of the barracks were designed to house 250 people, and even that is at quite a push, but they were soon housing over 500 people.

The initial intention of the camp was to hold Soviet prisoners of war and also civilian prisoners, so the standard of accommodation was meant to be at least bearable. There were 108 barracks erected in total across the site, with the conditions being ever more intolerable as the war progressed and the purpose of the site changed.

Majdanek’s memorial is an imposing structure built at the entrance to the camp and it was erected in 1969 to mark 25 years since it was liberated. The memorial was designed by Wiktor Tołkin, a Polish sculptor who had been incarcerated at Auschwitz Birkenau and had managed to survive a death march.

The memorial is, I understand, meant to represent the enormity of what happened here. It is intended to be both bleak and to also represent hope for the future.

Located towards the rear of Majdanek, these are execution ditches which were dug in November 1943 to bury the bodies of around 18,000 Jewish prisoners who had been murdered. There are three of these ditches and bodies were stacked and then set on fire.

There are some questions about why these ditches were dug in a zig zag shape and why so close to the houses at the rear of the site. It’s said that the Nazis played loud music to disguise the sound of the killings, although I suspect it would have been hard to entirely hide from local people what was happening here.

This is a modern column which was designed by Witold Marcewicz and placed here in 2013. The timing was deliberate as it marked the seventieth anniversary since a number of Poles erected a similar looking sculpture in the field with the national symbol of eagles.

The Nazis hadn’t allowed the Poles to place the column up out of a gesture of goodwill, but rather because there was a visit by the Red Cross in 1943 and they wanted the camp to look decorated and welcoming. The Red Cross also brought food into the camp and it seems from what I’ve read that the prisoners were actually given it.

I’m slightly confused as to exactly what went on and when at Majdanek because the Red Cross did have some involvement at the camp during 1943, even securing the release of some prisoners. Although they were only released into Lublin, which was under Nazi control anyway.

The Nazis stole the property of Jews, and others who they imprisoned in concentration camps, on an industrial scale. They were sent to Germans who needed assistance, especially those who were settling into Poland, as well as sending some shoes on to other concentration camps.

When Majdanek was liberated the Soviets found 430,000 pairs of shoes, a number almost beyond imagination. There were so many shoes here because Majdanek was used as the storage site for property stolen at a number of other camps, and the Germans fled without time to send them on.

There is a story behind every single pair of those shoes, although unfortunately it’s not a story that will be told. The shoes of children, men and women, stolen by the Nazis when the victims arrived at the camp.

Sadly in 2010 there was a fire in Majdanek and 10,000 shoes were destroyed in the blaze. And in November 2014 it was discovered that a visitor had cut into the wire mesh and stolen around eight pairs of shoes. It’s hard to find words to comment on that sort of theft.