Majdanek Concentration Camp

Majdanek Concentration Camp

Majdanek was a Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Although initially established for forced labor and not for extermination, the camp was used to kill people during Operation Reinhard: the Nazi plan to murder all Jews within the General Government in Poland. More than 79,000 people were killed at Majdanek (59,000 of them Polish Jews) during the 34 months of its operation. The camp, which operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, was captured nearly intact because the advance of the Soviet Red Army was so rapid it prevented the Nazis from destroying most of its infrastructure before liberation. Majdanek remains the best preserved Nazi concentration camp of the Holocaust.

Unlike other similar camps in Poland, Majdanek was not located in a remote rural location away from population areas but next to a major city. This proximity led the camp to be named 'Majdanek' ("little Majdan") by local people in 1941 because it was near to the district of Majdan Tatarski ("Tatar Maidan") in Lublin. Although Nazi documents initially named the site "Prisoner of War Camp of the Waffen-SS in Lublin" (because of the way it was operated and funded), and then later, "Konzentrationslager Lublin" (English: Concentration Camp Lublin) in February 1943, the local name is how it is remembered.