Currently, the former death camp of the Third Reich Majdanek, located on the outskirts of the Polish city of Lublin, is a museum institution included in the State Register of Museums.

On July 17, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered Heinrich Himmler to police the eastern territories occupied by Germany. On the same day, Himmler appointed the head of the SS and police of the District of Lublin, Odilo Globocnik, as his authorized representative for the creation of an SS structure and concentration camps in the territory of the General Government (occupied Poland).

The camp had an area of ​​270 hectares (about 90 hectares are now used as the territory of the museum). It was divided into five sections, one of them was intended for women. There were many different buildings, namely: 22 barracks for prisoners, 2 administrative barracks, 227 factory and production workshops. The camp had 10 branches: Budzyn (near Krasnik), Hrubieszow, Lublin, Plaszow (near Krakow), Travniki (near Wiepszem), etc. The prisoners of the camp were engaged in forced labor in their own industries, in a factory for the production of uniforms and in an arms factory "Steyer-Daimler-Puch".

The mass extermination of people in gas chambers began in 1942. Carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide) was first used as a poisonous gas, and since April 1942, Zyklon B. Majdanek is one of the two death camps of the Third Reich where this gas was used (the second is Auschwitz). The first crematorium for burning the bodies of the tortured was launched in the second half of 1942 (for 2 ovens), the second - in September 1943 (for 5 ovens).

According to updated data, about 150,000 prisoners visited the camp, about 80,000 were killed, of which 60,000 were Jews.

Currently, a memorial museum operates on the territory of the Majdanek camp. It was established in November 1944 and became the first museum in Europe on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp.

At the entrance to the camp in 1969, the Monument of Struggle and Martyrdom was erected (designed by Victor Tolkien).

Near the crematorium and execution ditches, a mausoleum with a concrete dome was built, under which the ashes of the victims were collected.

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This is a description of the Majdanek Concentration Camp attraction in Lublin, Lublin Voivodeship (Poland). As well as photos, reviews and a map of the surroundings. Find out the history, coordinates, where it is located and how to get there. Check out other locations on our interactive map for more details. Know the world better.

Our history must not be forgotten. Not because it is our memory, but so that this would never happen again. What happened in this camp is simply beyond words. This is one of the biggest tragedies in human history. Remember...

Camp history

Maidanek (Polish Majdanek, German Konzentrationslager Lublin, Vernichtungslager Lublin), the second largest Nazi death camp in Europe, was established in the autumn of 1941 by order of Heinrich Himmler, during his visit to Lublin. The purpose of the Majdanek death camp is police supervision of the territories occupied by the Nazis.

The camp was located in the eastern part of the city of Lublin on an area of ​​270 hectares, and was built under the direction of SS engineer officer Hans Kammler.

About 2 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were engaged in the construction of the camp.

2 administrative buildings, 22 barracks for prisoners, 227 factory and industrial premises, a kitchen block, shower rooms with disinfection rooms, an infirmary and the most terrible building in the Majdanek death camp is the gas chambers and the crematorium.

The territory where the prisoners were housed was divided into 6 zones, one of the zones was reserved for female prisoners. The fields for the prisoners were surrounded by double barbed wire, through which a high voltage current passed. Guard towers were placed along the wire.

And this is what the barracks for prisoners looked like:

Initially death camp Majdanek was not so huge and was designed for only 5,000 prisoners. However, after the capture by the Nazis of a large number of Soviet prisoners of war near Kiev, the camp was enlarged and was able to accommodate 250,000 prisoners.

How many prisoners actually visited the Majdanek extermination camp is difficult to say even now. Numbers to prisoners, after the death of their carriers, were issued again.

In 1941 and early 1942, the prisoners were used in slave labor at the uniform factory and at the Steyer-Daimler-Puch arms factory. However, in 1942, after the defeat of fascist Germany on many fronts during military operations on the territory of the USSR, the Germans began to massively destroy prisoners in gas chambers.

At first, people were poisoned with carbon monoxide, but from April 1942 they began to use a gas called Zyklon B. But The most terrible tragedy occurred on November 3, 1943. During an operation codenamed "Erntefest"(Erntefes is a harvest holiday), in the death camps of Majdanek, Poniatova and Travniki, all Jews from the Lublin region were destroyed. In total, between 40,000 and 43,000 people were killed.

Beginning in November 1943, in the immediate vicinity of the camp, ditches 100 meters long, 6 meters wide and 3 meters deep were dug by the prisoners. On the morning of November 3, all the Jews of the camp, as well as nearby camps, were driven to Majdanek. They were stripped and ordered to lie down along the moat according to the “tile principle”: that is, the next prisoner lay his head on the back of the previous one.

A group of SS men of about 100 people purposefully killed people with a shot in the back of the head. After the first "layer" of prisoners was eliminated, the Nazis repeated the execution until the 3-meter trench was completely filled with human corpses. During the massacre, music was played to muffle the shots. After that, the corpses of people were covered with a small layer of earth.

Fearing the advancing Red Army, and subsequent revelations, all buried corpses of prisoners were removed from their graves and burned in the crematorium.

The prisoners rescued by the Soviet army (2,500 people in total) said that the smoke from the crematorium poured non-stop day and night. The smell of burnt human flesh was terrifying.

How many people died in the death camp is not exactly known. According to official figures, 300,000 prisoners passed through Majdanek, of whom about 80,000 were killed., mostly Jews and Soviet prisoners of war. Soviet historians give other figures - 1,500,000 prisoners, of which 360,000 prisoners were destroyed. But the essence is not even in numbers, although they are huge, but in ideology: why can some nations consider that they have the right to destroy their own kind? Why does fascism flourish today?

The Majdanek death camp ceased to exist on July 22, 1944 as a result of the offensive of the Soviet troops. After the war, the camp was used for some time by the NKVD to contain German prisoners of war and Polish "enemies of the people", the latter including fighters from the Home Army (Polish resistance movement).

Currently in the territory l There is a memorial museum on 90 hectares of Majdanek death camp.

Camp commandants

From its creation in September 1941 until its liberation in July 1944, five commandants stood at the head of the camp:

• Karl Koch - from July to August 1941-42.
• Max Koegel - from August to October 1942.
• Herman Florsted - from October to November 1942-43.
• SS-Sturmbannführer Martin Weiss - from November to May 1, 1943-44.
• SS-Obersturmbannführer Arthur Liebehenschel - from May 19 to August 15, 1944.

Museum address and opening hours

Address: Poland (Polska), Lublin (Lubel) Voivodeship (Województwo lubelskie) Voivodeship, city ​​of Lublin, st. Road of the Martyrs of Majdanek (Droga Meczennikow Majdanka) 67, official website: http://www.majdanek.eu.

Opening hours: The museum is closed on Mondays. In winter, it is open from 9:00 to 16:00, in summer from 9:00 to 17:00.

Approximate time needed to visit the museum:

• excursions - about 2.5 hours
• private tour - about 1.5 hours
• museum lessons and other educational activities - 4.5 hours

Photos of the concentration camp

modern museum building	concentration camp memorial
watchtower at the entrance to the concentration camp	barbed wire fence
barbed wire and camp watchtowers	barbed and electric fence
barracks for prisoners	in the barracks for prisoners
bunks for prisoners	shower room for prisoners
millions of boots, shoes...	shoes of those who once lived ...
scary exhibits of the Majdanek Museum	exposition of the Majdanek Museum
SS uniforms	clothes of prisoners
barracks for camp prisoners	monument to the victims of fascism
camp crematorium	table for cutting human bodies
many stoves...	human burning stove
human burning stove	human burning stove
mausoleum of the victims of fascism	mausoleum of the victims of fascism
mausoleum to the victims of fascism in the camp	human ashes, a lot of ashes ...

On the outskirts of a Polish city Lublin is located, a museum on the site of the Nazi concentration camp. Majdanek functioned during the occupation of Poland by Germany from October 1941 to July 1944. From October 1942, a camp for women began to operate in one of the sections. Although the project was never intended to be created in camps for children, children were also kept here - Jewish, Belarusian and Polish.

German concentration camp in Lublin, popularly called , was created by order of Heinrich Himmler. visiting Lublin in July 1941, he instructed the head of the SS and police in Lublin, Odilo Globocnik, to build a camp for 25-50 thousand prisoners who were supposed to work for the good of the Reich. The camp was supposed to be a reservoir of free labor for the implementation of plans to create a German empire in the East.

The visit to the museum starts from Monument of struggle and martyrdom designed by Victor Tolkien, which was erected at the entrance to the camp in 1969. From this place you can see what a vast territory this death camp occupied. The camp had an area of ​​270 hectares (about 90 hectares are now used as the territory of the museum).

The camp was founded to isolate and exterminate those whom the Germans considered enemies of the Third Reich. (officially German KL Lublin)- the second largest Nazi concentration camp in Europe after Auschwitz (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau).

The territory of the concentration camp was divided into five sections (fields), one of them was intended for women. There were many buildings: 22 barracks for prisoners, each with a capacity of about 200 prisoners, 2 administrative barracks, 227 factory and production workshops.

To accommodate the prisoners, primitive wooden barracks made by the prisoners themselves were knocked together. The camp lacked basic sanitation, the residential barracks were usually overcrowded, and there was an acute shortage of water, food, clothing, and medicines. These living conditions of prisoners led to increased mortality.

The fields for the prisoners were surrounded by double barbed wire, through which a high voltage current passed. Guard towers were placed along the wire.

Along this fence we went to the mausoleum.

The dome, which is located next to the cremotorium, covers a large mound of the ashes of exterminated prisoners. In the spring of 1947, the earth mixed with the ashes of the dead, which the Nazis planned to use to fertilize the fields, was brought from different places of the camp to one mound. Within a few months, about 1300 m³ of earth was collected. In the sixties, a mausoleum was erected over the barrow.

The inscription on the mausoleum reads: "Our fate is a warning to you." A quote from a poem by the Polish poet Franciszek Fenikowski ( Franciszek Fenikowski).

According to modern official data, 300,000 prisoners passed through, of which 40% were Jews, 35% were Poles, a significant number were also Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians (mainly Soviet prisoners of war); about 80,000 people were destroyed (75% - Jews). Soviet historiography gives other figures - 1,500,000 prisoners and 360,000 victims (data announced by the commission in 1946). Since in Majdanek prisoner numbers were reused, and not assigned to only one prisoner, that is, the number of the deceased was transferred to the newcomer, difficulties arose in counting the victims of the camp. Scientists are still arguing about the number of victims of Majdanek.

Next to the mausoleum is the building of the crematorium.

From the first minutes, the stay of prisoners was inevitably accompanied by hunger, fear, oppression by overwork and disease. For any misconduct of prisoners, even imaginary, severe punishment was immediately imposed. Prisoners were shot and killed in gas chambers. According to the latest data , of the 150 thousand prisoners of Majdanek, almost 80,000 people died, including about 60,000 Jews. To hide traces at the crime scene, the corpses of the victims were burned at the stake or in a crematorium.

The Nazis failed to destroy the camp during the retreat. They only managed to burn down the building of the crematorium, but the ovens survived. The table on which the executioners undressed and chopped the victims survived.

The functioning of the Lublin concentration camp ended on July 23, 1944, when the Red Army entered the city. The museum website says that some time later on the territory The NKVD kept prisoners from the arrested members of the Polish underground resistance and captured German soldiers.

Idea to perpetuate the memory of the victims Majdanek concentration camp arose long before the founding of the present museum. In 1943, a group of prisoners, on the orders of the head of the Kaps camp, erected a column with three birds on top in order to decorate the camp. The prisoners secretly placed a container of ashes from the crematorium under it. This column camp still stands today in the middle of black barracks (a column of three eagles).

Barrack number 62. Since 2008, the exhibitions of the State Museum in Majdanek have been significantly expanded. Work was also carried out on the conservation and restoration of historical buildings (barracks). In one of the barracks, the exhibition "Prisoners of Majdanek" is on display. Here you can hear in the recording memories of the camp of prisoners - victims of Nazi persecution and genocide. Their individual destinies make up the history of the concentration camp in Lublin. Here are stored some personal belongings of prisoners, photographs and documents related to the activities of the camp.

Banks in which he kept "Cyclone B"- a pesticide based on hydrocyanic acid, best known for its use for mass extermination of people in the gas chambers of death camps:

In the neighboring barracks, you can see several more installations that tell about the terrible events both in the camp, and about the history of the operation of the entire system of German camps in Europe.

Shoes of the victims of Majdanek. The huge warehouse is filled to the brim with shoes, crushed, crumpled, pressed into heaps. There are thousands of shoes, boots, shoes. It's scary to look at this pile of dead shoes. All these were worn by people.

In barrack No. 47, an installation was organized "Temple - a place of memory of unknown victims" ( Shrine). The project by Tadeusz Mysłowski shows a symbolic composition (50 balls made of barbed wire, a book of memory of victims from 50 countries). In the darkness of the barracks, a musical oratorio by Zbigniew Bargielski, fragments of the memoirs of prisoners and prayers of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Gypsies sound.

Disinfection chamber, and part-time gas chamber.

Visit to the State Museum in available to visitors only during business hours.

Grounds and open-air museum: from April to October - 9.00-18.00 , from November to March - 9.00-16.00 .

Barrack No. 62 and visitor service center (literature and translators): from April to October - 9.00-17.00 , from November to March - 9.00-16.00 .

In the photo - replenishment in Auschwitz

I still don’t understand how it can be combined in a person: such nice people, such inhuman atrocities.

MAYDANEK, a mass extermination camp on the outskirts of Lublin. Created in autumn 1941 by the Nazis. The area is about 270 hectares. The first prisoners were Soviet prisoners of war (about two thousand), brought in October 1941; most died from hunger and cold, the survivors were shot in July 1942.

Soon, transports with Jews doomed to mass extermination began to arrive in Majdanek: in 1942 from Slovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (15,000) and Poland (36,000); in 1943 from the Netherlands and Greece (six thousand), from Poland (74.8 thousand). In total in 1942–43. over 130,000 Jews were deported to Majdanek, of which 78,000 (women, children, the sick and the elderly) were destroyed as they arrived (shot in the nearby forest or killed in seven gas chambers). About 52,000 able-bodied prisoners were used for various jobs in Majdanek itself or were transferred to work in other camps. By November 1943, 37 thousand people had died from torture, overwork and starvation.

In the repressions undertaken by the Nazis after the uprising of prisoners in the Sobibor camp - the so-called action of Erntefest (harvest festival), - on November 3, 1943, more than 18.4 thousand Jews of Majdanek were killed, after which only 612 Jews remained in Majdanek, whom the Nazis forced dig up and burn corpses to hide traces of crimes.

In addition to Jews, Polish peasants from nearby areas and Soviet citizens (men and women) were sent to Majdanek. Majdanek had "branches": Budzyn (part of the city of Krasnik), two camps in Lublin, Blizhyn, Radom, Warsaw-Gensyuvka. According to Polish investigations, about 200,000 Jews and about 100,000 Poles were exterminated in Majdanek itself. When the Red Army occupied Majdanek in July 1944, there were several hundred surviving prisoners of various nationalities in the camp.

In 1947, the Polish authorities established a museum and research institute in Majdanek.

On January 26, 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 61/255 "Holocaust Denial", condemning the denial of the Holocaust as a historical fact, and proclaimed January 27, the day of the liberation of the concentration camp "Auschwitz", International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Not all documentary evidence was destroyed by the Nazis on Auschwitz. The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that more than 4 million people died in this concentration camp, proceeded from the testimony of witnesses, eyewitnesses and executioners. Beginning in 1940, about 10 echelons of people arrived in Auschwitz from the occupied territories every day. Each echelon had 40–50 wagons. There were from 50 to 100 people in each car. About 70% of those who arrived were destroyed immediately.

At first there were three crematoria in Auschwitz, then a fourth was built. There are testimonies of those who designed the new crematoria. Several pits 60 by 40 m in size and three meters deep were dug on the territory, in which corpses were also constantly burned. These fires burned constantly. Based on this information, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry concluded that more than 4 million people died in Auschwitz.

From the Act of Inspection of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp by an Expert Technical Commission from February 14 to March 8, 1945:

... The expert technical commission included: professor, doctor-engineer Davidovsky Roman from the city of Krakow, professor, doctor-engineer Dolinsky Yaroslav from the city of Krakow, candidate of technical sciences, engineer-major Vladimir Lavrushin and engineer-captain Abram Shuer.

... As a result of a detailed study of the drawings and documentation found in the Auschwitz concentration camp, a detailed study of the remains of blown up crematoria and gas chambers, on the basis of investigative materials and testimonies of witnesses from among the prisoners who worked at the gas chambers and in crematoria, the commission established:

In the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Germans organized a huge plant for the mass extermination of people, mainly by killing with the poisonous substance "Cyclone" and then burning them in crematoria or at the stake. Of all the countries occupied by the Germans - France, Belgium, Holland, Yugoslavia, Poland, Greece, etc. - trains with people destined for destruction arrived in Auschwitz. Only an insignificant part of the healthiest, temporarily used as labor in military factories and as experimental subjects for various kinds of medical experiments, were left in the camp for subsequent extermination.

During the existence of the Auschwitz camp from 1940 to January 1945, powerful crematoria for burning corpses functioned in it. At crematoria, as well as separately from them, on a gigantic scale, people were poisoned with poisonous gas in specially equipped and improved gas chambers. Along with this perfect technique for the destruction of people, the burning of corpses was also carried out in huge quantities on special fires. Here, in the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Germans rationalized the methods and extent of the mass extermination of people.

For only one crematorium during the entire period of their existence, the Germans could destroy: Crematorium No. 1 - 216,000 people in 24 months; Crematorium No. 2 - for 19 months - 1,710,000 people; Crematorium No. 3 - for 18 months of existence - 1,618,000 people; Crematorium No. 4 - for 17 months - 765,000 people; Crematorium No. 5 - 810,000 people in 18 months.

Based on investigative data, it can be established that the Germans killed at least 4 million people during the existence of the Auschwitz camp, and it is likely that the actual number of people who died here at the hands of German executioners is even more amazing.

1. Nazi bastards in the Auschwitz concentration camp built a giant plant for the mass extermination of people.

2. During the existence of the camp - from 1940 to January 1945 - there were five crematoria for 52 retorts with a capacity of about 270,000 corpses per month.

3. Each crematorium had its own gas chamber, where people of various nationalities were poisoned with the Cyclone poison gas. The performance of the gas chambers significantly exceeded the capacity of the furnaces and provided the most extreme load during the operation of crematoria.

4. In addition, there were two separate gas chambers, in which the Germans burned corpses on grandiose bonfires. Both had a capacity of at least 150,000 people per month.

5. The German-fascist "cannibals" in the Auschwitz concentration camp, according to the most conservative estimates, poisoned in gas chambers and burned in crematoria at least 4 million people.

From left to right: Richard Baer (Commandant of Auschwitz), Dr. Josef Mengele and Rudolf Hoess (previousCommandant of Auschwitz).

On January 27, the 60th Army, operating as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, under the command of Colonel General Kurochkin, liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp and saved its prisoners from inevitable destruction.

Parts of the 106th Rifle Corps of the 60th Army and the 115th Rifle Corps of the 59th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front took a direct part in the liberation of the concentration camp.

Two eastern branches of Auschwitz - Monowitz and Zaratz - were liberated by soldiers of the 100th and 322nd divisions of the 106th rifle corps. At about 3 pm on January 27, 1945, units of the 100th division under the command of Major General F. Krasavin liberated Auschwitz. Around the same day, January 27, another branch of Auschwitz - Yaworzhno - was liberated by soldiers of the 286th division of the 115th sk of the 59th army of the 4th Ukrainian front. On January 28, units of the 107th division (commander - Colonel V. Petrenko) liberated Birkenau. According to various estimates, in the battles for the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, from 234 to 350 Soviet soldiers and officers gave their lives.

At the time of liberation, there were about three thousand people in the camp, of which 96 were Soviet prisoners of war. The total numbers of released prisoners are as follows: “In the Auschwitz camp, from 180 to 250 thousand prisoners of various nationalities were constantly kept. Of the 2819 people liberated by the Red Army, 745 people turned out to be subjects of Poland, 542 people of Hungary, 346 people of France, 315 people of Czechoslovakia, 180 people of the USSR, 159 people of Holland, 149 people of Yugoslavia, Italy - 91 people, Greece - 76 people, Romania - 52 people, Belgium - 41 people. and other countries."

From the materials of archival investigative files:

Eyewitness statements:

Kogut Ludwig Yuzefovich, born in 1897, a native of the village. Yashenitsa of the Belsky district, Pole, citizen of Germany, Volksdeutsch, 6th grade education, master builder by profession. He worked as a chief foreman of the Lelya company on the construction of the Auschwitz camp. From the record of the interrogation of witness L. Kogut. April 25, 1945:

... Working in the Auschwitz camp from October 1941 to December 1944 as the chief builder of the Lelya company, I can say for sure that people of various nationalities were brought to the Auschwitz camp every day from all the countries occupied by the Nazi troops railroad trains. Every day, up to 10 echelons arrived at the Auschwitz camp, and each of them consisted of 40–50 or even more wagons. There were from 50 to 100 people in each car. Thus, approximately 25,000 people arrived at the camp daily. Most of the people brought to the camp were immediately killed in specially constructed gas chambers with some kind of gas. An insignificant part, and physically healthy, from the echelons was selected to perform physical work at the camp. ... In the winter of 1941-1942. during severe frosts, prisoners who were unable to do their work were stripped naked, and they died in severe torment in front of other prisoners. This was done for the entertainment of SS thugs, kapos, non-commissioned officers and chief kapos, as well as to intimidate other prisoners. The prisoners were forced to harness themselves to wagons and carry heavy loads, and during this time they were beaten ...

Khonkish Anton Yuzefovich, born in 1912 Kozy (Poland), Pole, with a 7th grade education, non-partisan, married, no criminal record. Since May 12, 1942, a bricklayer of the Industriya company for the construction of premises in the Auschwitz concentration camp. From the protocol of interrogation of Khonkish A.Yu. March 21, 1945:

... In the death camp, in total, at least six million people were destroyed during its existence, including children, women, old men and old women ... ... Repeatedly I saw how the SS officers picked up prisoners with beards. The beards were smeared with resin, and then a “shave” was arranged, the beard hair was wound on wooden sticks and the hair was pulled out, because the resin stuck to the sticks along with the hair. From such torment, people fell, falling into unconsciousness. They were then lifted up, pinned to the wall with logs and "brought to consciousness" by severe beatings until death.

Auschwitz executioners after a hard day's work

Executioners testimonies:

Gaisler Eduard, born in 1890, a native of the village. Brunensdorf (Austria), a German, a citizen of Germany, from the workers, 8th grade education, married, resident of Berlin. March 1944 to April 1945 squad leader in the SS security battalion of the SS division "Totenkopf"; non-commissioned officer. He guarded the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Oranienburg; took a direct part in the mass executions, torture and killing in gas chambers and gas chambers of the prisoners of these camps. Arrested by security officers on July 20, 1945. From the protocol of interrogation by E. Geisler. July 24, 1945:

... Being in a school (training company) for the extermination of people of mainly Jewish nationality and Gypsies, they taught that we must destroy such a nationality as a Jew in Germany and the countries and regions of the Soviet Union occupied by German troops so that this nationality never wants to work in physical work, but is engaged in trade, deception and humiliation of other nationalities, in particular, the Germans, that they always creep into high positions and thereby infringe on such a nationality as the Germans, and the gypsies in general live by deceit, and therefore we are all gypsies and Jews, Germans, we will have to destroy from small to old, so that this nation does not exist on earth at all ...

Gazelov Elizabeth, born in 1921, a native of the village. Krapin, Kreise Bitterfeld of the province of Saxony, from the workers, non-partisan, German, 8th grade education, married, citizen of Germany. In May 1943, she entered the service in the SS guard detachments; served as a warden in the Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Auschwitz concentration camps. Arrested by Soviet security forces on May 22, 1948. July 2, 1948. From the testimony of the defendant E. Gazelov. July 2, 1948:

... In April 1944, in connection with the offensive of the Soviet troops, part of the staff of the Majdanek camp left for another camp deep in Germany. I was sent as a warden to the extermination camp - "Auschwitz", in Silesia. This camp contained 40-45 thousand prisoners of various nationalities: Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, French. It was an extermination camp. A crematorium and a gas chamber were built here. I observed when, in July 1944, 2 columns of Romanian Jews (from Romania) numbering more than a thousand people were brought to the Auschwitz camp. These were prisoners of various ages: old men, youths and children. All of them were poisoned in the gas chamber, and the corpses were burned in the crematorium. They say that children were put into the gas chamber in the presence of their parents "...

Zander Fritz, born in Leipzig in 1876, German, secondary technical education, married, office worker. He was arrested on March 8, 1946 on charges that, “working as a chief engineer at the Topf factory, he considered and approved projects for the construction of crematorium ovens, ventilation units and blowers for both crematorium ovens and gas chambers, designed at the specified plant and destined for the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Dachau, Gross Rasen and Mauthausen. From the protocol of the interrogation of the arrested F. Zander. March 21, 1946:

…Question: Specify, when did you have a conversation with engineer Prufer [th] about the fact that, due to the low power of the crematoriums built by you, they do not have time to burn the presence of corpses in concentration camps?

Answer: I remember well that this conversation took place between me and engineer Prufer [om] in the spring of 1942, I don’t remember exactly the month, after engineer Prufer returned from a business trip from the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was testing furnaces in a newly built crematorium … After a conversation between myself and the engineer Prufer[om], I had the idea to design a conveyor system crematorium furnaces and I set about creating this project for the mass burning of corpses in concentration camps.

Question: What was the principle of operation of the new design crematorium you designed?

Answer: The principle of operation of the new design crematorium, designed by me for the mass burning of corpses, boiled down to the fact that the new crematorium system, unlike the old ones, had to mechanically feed corpses to the furnace for burning, entering there under the weight of its own weight, by gravity along a refractory platform, which had a slope of forty degrees, the corpses fell on the grate and, being under the influence of fire, burned. Moreover, the corpses themselves were supposed to serve as an additional source of fuel ... ".

Schwab Alexander, born in 1902, a native of the mountains. Vienna (Austria), Austrian (Reichsdeutsch), subject of Germany, non-partisan. From August 1944 to January 1945 non-commissioned officer (assistant overseer), then "blockeltester" (senior block) of the Auschwitz concentration camp. According to the decision of the Special Meeting at the Ministry of State Security of the USSR of November 29, 1947, "for bullying and complicity in the destruction of Soviet citizens" he was imprisoned in a correctional labor camp for a period of 25 years. From the protocol of the interrogation of A. Schwab. June 6, 1945:

... In the death camp, people doomed to death were brought from the occupied countries by whole echelons. Most of the prisoners brought to the death camp were immediately killed ... The SS-sheep called the prisoners out of action and shot them for no reason. This among the SS-sheep was called “execution when trying to escape” ... Drunk SS-sheep came in the winter to the blocks (barracks) and forced all the prisoners to take off all their clothes, while they themselves stood near the prisoners and laughed at the inhuman torment of the prisoners. These abuses continued for several hours. In December 1944, the camp command gathered the prisoners in order to execute five prisoners by hanging in their presence. These prisoners proclaimed the slogans: “Long live Stalin!”, “Long live Moscow!”, “Today we will die, and tomorrow you!”, “We die for Stalin!”. After that, the SS beat the five prisoners severely and then hanged them. These are far from all the facts of abuse of prisoners who were in the Auschwitz death camp. I am citing only those facts that I remember ...

Skrzypek Alfred, born in 1910, a native of Krolewska Huta, Upper Silesia, a Pole, a subject of Germany & Volksdeutsche, a mechanic by profession, a former member of the Polish underground organization "Mlada Polska" from 1933 to 1939, a resident of the city Krol Huta, st. Pudalevskaya, 20, apt. 13. From June 1940 to March 19, 1942 was in the Auschwitz concentration camp; "Blockeltester" of Barrack No. 8. Accepted German citizenship. On June 7, 1945, he was arrested by Soviet security agencies. According to the decision of the Special Meeting of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR dated November 29, 1947, “for bullying and complicity in the destruction of Soviet citizens”, he was imprisoned in a correctional labor camp for a period of 25 years. On October 19, 1955, he was released ahead of schedule and handed over to the government of the GDR in Frankfurt an der Oder. From the protocol of the interrogation of A. Skshipek. June 6, 1945:

... The fact is that the Germans created in the Auschwitz concentration camp such a system of destruction in the camp that all the bullying was carried out by the hands of the prisoners themselves. From among the prisoners, the following were appointed: the senior camp, the senior blocks, the chief capo, the capo and the non-commissioned officer (guards), who repaired bullying and beatings on the prisoners "...

... In pursuit of the ultimate goal of the destruction of prisoners, the camp administration cultivated all kinds of bullying - torture, which was carried out daily by the SS-sheep on prisoners. For example, I am aware of the use of torture on prisoners, the so-called. "Steinbunker", which means that 20-30 prisoners were placed in a small cell, where they could only stand. There were no windows in this cell, there was only a gap of a few millimeters. Almost no air entered such a cell, and the prisoners suffocated. "Wasserbunker" - water torture. In the cell (stone bag) - for one person, so that he could not move, water was let in, which dripped slowly on the head of the prisoner, and he died painfully.

When transports of prisoners arrived in winter, those destined for extermination were forced to work naked and barefoot in the cold until they fell and froze. During such a "session" 200-300 people died. Prisoners were hung up by their hands tied behind - for an hour or more. After this torture, the person could not work, because his hands would swell if he hung a little, or they completely twisted.

In addition, for their own pleasure, the SS-sheep often arranged humiliating contests for prisoners: Blockfuhrer - SS Rottenfuehrer Brickman, coming to my block no. 10 forced a prisoner to beat another, and at that time he himself laughed that prisoners beat each other for no reason.

Testimony of the prisoners:

Vechersky Pavel Feodosovich, born in 1889, a native of the village. Driomvshchina, Volosovsky village council. Feldsher-obstetrician in Minsk. Arrested by the Gestapo in Minsk on September 21, 1943 Prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943–1945:

... Arriving in Auschwitz on November 22, 1943, we spent two days in the sanitary inspection room, while we passed all the inquisitions, haircuts, shaving, tattooed the number on the left forearm, on mine - got 164669. After all of us, almost all of us naked and barefoot in the cold 10 (degrees) were driven to a quarantine located 2 km away. … After spending 7 weeks in quarantine, less than half of us remained, who were transferred to work at Birkenav. Here we saw the horrors of Auschwitz: a scuffle, a stick at every step, crematoria burned the corpses of people day and night, and did not have time. In April 44, a pit 40 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep was dug to help the crematoria, which burned without stopping its ominous fire, tens of thousands of human corpses were burned in it every day. These pits burned a lot of human corpses in 4 months (to August) of the same year. The Nazis, in order to hide the traces of their crimes, buried the pit and planted living trees in this place.

Epstein Bretold, born in 1890, a native of the mountains. Pilsen (Czechoslovakia), Jew, citizen of Czechoslovakia, professor of childhood diseases, university lecturer. In 1939, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he fled to Norway and lived in Oslo. On October 26, 1942, after the arrest of the Jewish population of Norway by the invaders, he was transported with his family to Poland; was kept in a concentration camp at Auschwitz. From the record of the interrogation of witness B. Epstein. April 2, 1945:

... 80% of people arriving at the camp were subjected to immediate destruction, and 20% of the people selected as specialists were left to work at various enterprises. But due to the unbearable working conditions created, the person left alive could only work for three months, and then was destroyed as having come to complete exhaustion. A rare case was in Auschwitz when a person left alive could live for six months. As far as I know, from the end of 1942 until recently, more than 4 million people, of all ages, of both sexes and of any nationality, were killed in the Auschwitz camp ...

The people doomed to death upon arrival at the camp were undressed and taken to a special room, equipped in the form of a bathhouse with shower facilities. Thus, people thought they were being led to bathe. But as soon as the room was filled to capacity with people, and from 3 to 4 thousand entered it at the same time, the doors were closed tightly, then the air was pumped out and an asphyxiating gas called "cyan" was let in. In two or three minutes, death occurred for the people gathered in the room. After everyone was killed, a Sonderkommando of prisoners led by one SS sheep entered this room. They examined the corpses, during which valuables, bracelets, rings were removed, gold teeth were pulled out, women's hair was cut off. Women's hair collected in this way was sent to Germany for industrial use.

After inspection, the entire mass of corpses was carried into special furnaces, where they were burned. The ash formed from the burning of corpses was partly sent to Germany for use in industry and agriculture, and partly exported to the Vistula ... In addition, I know that the extermination of people was also carried out by burning in special furnaces. The sick and exhausted from work, unable to move on their own, were piled on cars and taken to furnaces, in which case people were burned alive. There were no special methods of destruction for children; as a rule, they were brought into the bathhouse together with their parents and gassed there.

Urbanskaya Dunko, born in 1915, a native of the mountains. Zhytomyr, Polish subject, Jewess, non-partisan, with a higher education. July 1942 to January 1945 Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner. From the record of the interrogation of witness D. Urbanskaya. April 2, 1945:

... So many people arrived at the camp that there were not enough ovens for burning corpses and additional ones were built, the so-called. bonfires so that more corpses can be burned ...

... For their own pleasure, the SS-sheep ordered the female prisoners to be naked and arranged a “bath” for them - they were placed under the showers, where they let very cold water, then very hot water, and the watching SS-sheep laughed at the experiences of the prisoners. When the troops of the Red Army approached the mountains. Auschwitz, the camp command began to take measures to cover up the traces of their monstrous crimes against the world. They burned papers, cards on prisoners. In the autumn and winter of 1944, furnaces were blown up - crematoria, bonfires, where people were killed and burned ... "

Volman Yakov Abramovich, born in 1914, a native of the mountains. Luch, doctor by profession, higher education, single, no criminal record. April 1942 to January 1945 Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner. From the record of the interrogation of witness Ya.A. Volman February 16, 1945:

... I arrived at the Auschwitz camp in 1942 on April 29 in an echelon from Bratislava. On April 30, we were sent to block 18, reserved for prisoners who were building the Buno factory. All the prisoners who worked at the factory woke up at 3.5 in the morning. At the shout of “aufshteen” (to get up), everyone had to get up in one second, those who did not rise during this time were beaten with sticks, while the prisoners themselves, on the orders of Gut (supervisor), 1,500 people who lived in one block in the morning, had to 30 minutes in time to clean the beds, sweep, wash and get half a liter of coffee ... As a rule, before leaving for work, some people did not receive coffee every day. The dispenser, in front of the prisoners, poured coffee on the ground, declaring: "There is no time, it's time to go to work."

... The SS, chasing after receiving 60 marks, which, by order, were issued for each dead person who tried to make an "escape", arranged artificial escapes. I saw when the SSovets called the prisoners to him, and when they went beyond the conditional line, they were shot at. In another case, the SS officer asked to bring him water, and when the prisoner moved beyond the line, they also shot at him. … When I worked as an orderly, in one of the camp hospitals, in which there were 350 patients every day, then every week from 60 to 100 people were sent to the gas chamber, or received a fatal injection. In 1943, in January, February and March, those seriously ill were not sent to the hospital after watching, but were sent directly to the gas chamber. The last such inspection was carried out in October 1944, from which 800 people were sent for destruction ...

Holocaust... This term from the lexicon of the ancient Greek priests in the first half of the twentieth century acquired an ominous meaning. It began to serve to designate the inhuman practices carried out by the Nazis against the peoples of European countries, which, in the scale of "racial theory", were considered an inferior race, inferior people. With the advent of Hitler to power in Germany, a campaign of persecution of the Jews began: they were expelled from public service, deprived of their jobs, herded into concentration camps, their houses, shops and synagogues were burned down. The beginning of the Second World War became a new, even more bloody stage in the solution of the "Jewish question". The monstrous "practice" of the destruction of entire nations first spread to the states occupied by the Wehrmacht. From the autumn of 1939, special teams of the security police and the SD in the occupied territory of Poland began the mass extermination of Jews. Subsequently, it was in Poland that “death camps” (Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc.) were created, in which the Nazis killed millions of innocent citizens.

The photographs were taken in Auschwitz in 1944 by Karl Höcker, adjutant of the last camp commandant, Richard Baer. In 1946, an American intelligence officer stumbled upon the album in Frankfurt and kept it for himself. He recently, long retired, donated the album to Washington's United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

A total of 116 photographs do not contain a single prisoner.

Not far from the Polish town Lublin there is the Majdanek Memorial Museum, the first memorial museum on the site of the Nazi concentration camp. A place rarely visited by Russian tourists, unlike Auschwitz and quite specific.

Particularly impressionable and sensitive people go under the cut with caution.

2. Majdanek - the second largest Nazi concentration camp in Europe. It was created by order of Heinrich Himmler in the autumn of 1941 on the outskirts of Lublin, but did not exist there for a long time. Due to protests from local authorities, the camp had to be moved outside the city:

3. In unbearable conditions, about 2 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were engaged in the construction of the camp. On the original construction map it was written: "Camp Dachau No. 2". Then the name disappeared...

4. Initially, the concentration camp was designed for 20-50 thousand prisoners, but was subsequently expanded, after which it could take up to 250 thousand people. There were many different buildings, namely: 22 barracks for prisoners, 2 administrative barracks, 227 factory and production workshops:

6. The main prisoners of Majdanek were Soviet prisoners of war, who arrived here in large numbers. They were also transferred here from other concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Auschwitz, Flössenburg, Buchenwald, etc.:

8. Arriving at the camp, the prisoners were sent to the washing and disinfection unit:

10. The block is divided into several parts. Tambour:

11. Shower room:

12. Disinfection chamber, and later gas chamber:

13. Initially, Zyklon B gas was used to disinfect clothes and belongings of prisoners:

17. The camp was originally called the Lublin SS concentration camp, and only on February 16, 1943 was it officially turned into a death camp. Gas chambers were used to massacre prisoners:

19. The fields for the prisoners were surrounded by double barbed wire, through which a high voltage current passed:

20-21. Watch towers were placed along the wire:

22.

23. There are a lot of crows on the territory, which further enhances the impression of a dead place:

24. Sorry, but not all barracks were open in winter:

25. The camp had an area of ​​270 hectares (about 90 hectares are now used as the territory of the museum), and was divided into five sections, one of them was intended for women:

26. Shoes of Once Alive:

33. Neither the gas chambers nor the crematorium made such an impression on us as this barrack, the earthy smell of death stands straight in it, viscous and unbearably heavy:

35. Camp inmates engaged in forced labor in their own factories, in the uniform factory and in the arms factory "Steyer-Daimler-Puch".

39. The mass extermination of people began in the autumn of 1942. Then, for this purpose, the Germans began to use the poisonous gas Zyklon B. Majdanek is one of the two death camps of the Third Reich where this gas was used (the second - Auschwitz ). The first crematorium for burning the bodies of prisoners was launched in the second half of 1942 (for 2 ovens), the second - in September 1943 (for 5 ovens).

40. Those same five large furnaces:

43. During the liberation of the camp by Soviet soldiers, all the ashes that were in the crematorium ovens were collected in this sarcophagus:

44. Near the crematorium and execution ditches, a mausoleum with a concrete dome was built, under which the ashes of the victims were collected.

47. At the entrance to the territory of the camp in 1969, the Monument of Struggle and Martyrdom was erected.

48. The camp ceased to exist on July 22, 1944 as a result of the offensive of the Soviet troops. Currently, a memorial museum operates on the territory of the Majdanek camp. It was established in November 1944 and became the first museum in Europe on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp.

Throughout its history, about 1.5 million people of 54 nationalities have passed through the camp, but most of them were Jews, Poles and Russians. 360 thousand people were killed in the camp.

The exposition of the Majdanek State Museum provides updated data: in total, about 150,000 prisoners visited the camp, about 80,000 were killed, of which 60,000 were Jews.

I do not presume to judge the dead, and about what people died from, but I think that this should not happen again ... NEVER.

Here's how it happened...

What else is there in Poland: