Key Points
Location
Majdanek is situated about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the center of Lublin, in Nazi-occupied Poland. Its location near a major city facilitated the transport of victims.
Establishment
The camp began operations in late 1941, initially as a labor camp for prisoners. It was later expanded to function as an extermination camp as part of the broader Nazi genocidal policies. With seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, and some 227 structures in all, it was among the largest camps. In September 1943 the Nazis added a large crematorium containing five ovens. Though it served primarily as a vast forced-labor camp for Polish Jews, Majdanek also served as a detention center for real and suspected members of the Polish underground resistance in the General Government and for Poles suspected of violating the harsh provisions issued by the Nazi occupation authorities. Next to Jews, Poles represented the largest minority in the camp. In mid-October 1942, out of a total of 9,519 registered prisoners in the camp, 7,468 were Jews (78.45%) and 1,884 were non-Jewish Poles (19.79%). In August 1943, there were 16,206 prisoners in the main camp: 9,105 were Jews (56.18%); and 3,893 (24.02%) were Poles. Other prisoners at Majdanek included Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Soviet prisoners of war and Soviet civilians, and a handful of others.
Mass Extermination
While Majdanek served primarily as a labor camp, it also included facilities for mass killings. The camp used several methods for extermination, including gas chambers and mass shootings. Victims were often subjected to forced labor under brutal conditions, leading to high mortality rates from starvation, disease, and exhaustion. During its almost four years of existence, some 500,000 persons from 28 countries and of 54 nationalities passed through Majdanek. According to the most reliable estimates, about 360,000 died there. Of these, some 60 percent died of starvation, torture, or disease, and some 40 percent were murdered by firing squad or in the gas chambers. Like those employed at Belzec, Majdanek’s first gas chambers used carbon monoxide; later, on the Auschwitz model, the Nazis installed gas chambers using Zyklon-B, which produced quick-killing hydrogen cyanide fumes.
Liberation
The Soviet Red Army entered Majdanek in late July 1944, a full 6 months before the liberation of Auschwitz and 10 months before American and British troops entered concentration camps in Germany and Austria. Only a few hundred prisoners remained alive. In the days before the Soviets arrived, the Germans had hastily evacuated Majdanek and burned documents, several buildings, and the large crematoria. The gas chambers and many of the prisoner barracks remained intact. Majdanek was liberated by Soviet forces on July 23, 1944. Upon liberation, it became one of the first camps to be discovered, leading to extensive documentation of the atrocities committed there. Soviet officials invited journalists to inspect the camp and evidence of the horrors that had occurred there.
