| Majdanek/Maidanek |
| Established: February 16, 1943 Evacuated: July 1944 Liberated: July 22, 1944 by Soviets Survivors: 500 at liberation Total Inmates: 500,000 Inmates at one time: 24,000 Total Deaths: 360,000 Subcamps: 8 |
| Source: Edelheit, Botwinick, Byers, Feig, Arad Go to Previous Camp - Gross-Rosen Go to Next Camp - Mauthausen Return to Fast Links Return to Home Page Go to Death Camps Go to Concentration Camps |
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| Majdanek opened as a concentration camp first, later becoming a labor and extermination camp. Majdanek was an urban camp in Poland, the only large Nazi concentration camp to be constructed in the midst of things without secrecy or subterfuge. Majdanek was designated to be a camp for 150,000 prisoners of war and civilian internees in order to enlarge and extend the SS economic enterprises in Lublin. The first transport of 5,000 Soviet POWs built the camp itself. Most of the prisoners of war died. In 1941, Majdanek also served as a forced-labor settlement. Majdanek was the Nazis second largest camp. (Auschwitz was the largest) Gassing facilities were added to the camp in the fall of 1942. The staff of the camp included 1,200 SS personnel. Majdanek camp had a hospital, although it possessed no medicines. Medical experiments were not as extensive as those in most camps. (See Medical Experiments) The SS employed several methods for killing prisoners, including: mass shootings and hangings of Soviet POWs and Jews, and Zyklon B in gas chambers. Remaineders of bones were ground into powdered fertilizer. Plunder was big business at Majdanek. The SS stole everything prisoners brought with them, including money, jewelry, shoes, clothes, dentures, toys, utensils, and women's hair. Prisoners were hired out to work in Lublin's food, cement work, and wood product industries. Prisoners of Majdanek included women and children who were hired out to work in the garment industry, in sewing workshops, and in ammunition factories. Exploitation of the Jewish prisoner labor was necessitated by conditions of the war economy. Evacuations from Majdanek began as early as April 1943. |