It seems this chapter of my life is to be pervaded by the history of human atrocities like the Cambodian genocide and the Nazi murders of World War II. It is hard to come to Poland and not be exposed to the destruction of many past wars and the Holocaust. Like the killing fields of Cambodia, Poland has concentration or extermination camps like Majdanek.

Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp established in October of 1941 during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. It originally was designed as a prisoner of war camp, but ultimately some 150,000 people, representing 26 countries from Europe, mostly Jews, non Jewish Poles, and Russians, were imprisoned at Majdanek.

Unlike other similar camps in Poland, Majdanek was not located in a remote rural location away from population centers. It was within the boundaries of Lublin, adjacent to the city’s district of Majdan Tatarski (“Tatar Maidan”). This proximity led the camp to be named ‘Majdanek’ (“little Majdan”).

Fields with wooden barracks served as the accommodation for inmates that were forced to work towards the Nazi war effort until their death.

Due to their primitive, careless construction, lack of basic sanitation, and the fact that they were overcrowded, the barracks contributed significantly to the death rate in the camp.

The situation was made worse by the shortage of water, food, clothes, and medicines.

Prisoners were executed by shooting and murdered in gas chambers. Among the 150,000 prisoners who entered Majdanek, 80,000 people, including 60,000 Jews, died or were exterminated.

In order to remove the traces of the crimes, the corpses of those who died and the murdered were burnt on pyres or in the crematorium.

To commemorate their fate, a huge monument (first photo) and a great domed mausoleum near the crematorium were built on the site of the camp.

 On display in the mausoleum are ashes of thousands killed.

Original barracks, gas chambers, crematorium, historical documents, and personal belongings of the prisoners stand on exhibit at Majdanek which is now a State Museum as silent witnesses of the Nazis’ atrocities.