Majdanek

Majdanek, officially KL Lublin-Majdanek, was a Nazi German concentration and extermination camp established in 1941 on the eastern outskirts of Lublin, Poland, near the village of Majdanek. It was operated by the SS and police and functioned as a complex for detention, forced labor, and mass murder within the Nazi camp system.

The camp consisted of the main camp and numerous subcamps in the Lublin area. It included facilities such as barracks, administrative buildings, and crematoria with gas chambers, which were used as part of the Nazi program of systematic murder. Prisoners came from Poland and occupied territories and included Jews, Polish political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma, and other groups deemed enemies of the regime. Conditions were harsh, with starvation, disease, overwork, and executions contributing to a large death toll. Estimates place total deaths at Majdanek at about 78,000, the majority of whom were Jewish.

Majdanek was liberated by Soviet forces on 23