Majdanek — a remembrance visit with private transport from Warsaw or Krakow

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The Majdanek concentration camp was established by the SS in October 1941 on the outskirts of Lublin, in the Majdan Tatarski district. Originally planned as a labour camp for Soviet prisoners of war, in 1942 it was expanded to a double function — concentration and extermination. In the latter role Majdanek served above all Aktion Reinhard: here the property of murdered Jews from the camps at Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka was stored, here clothing, shoes and personal effects were sorted before dispatch to Germany. At its peak Majdanek held up to 50,000 prisoners at one time — Jews from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Greece, alongside Polish political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Belarusian and Ukrainian partisans. The total number of prisoners who passed through the camp is approximately 150,000. The number of victims — those who died or were murdered there — is estimated at approximately 78,000, including some 60,000 Jews. On 3 November 1943 Majdanek was the scene of the largest single-day mass shooting of the Holocaust — Aktion Erntefest (“Harvest Festival"). The Germans, fearing a repetition of the Sobibór revolt (of 14 October 1943), decided to liquidate the Jewish prisoners of all camps of the Lublin district. At Majdanek that day approximately 18,000 Jews — men, women and children — were shot in trenches prepared on the camp perimeter. Music was broadcast from loudspeakers during the executions to mask the gunfire. It was the largest single crime committed by the Germans in one day and one place in the entire history of the Second World War. On 22 July 1944 the Red Army entered Lublin and liberated Majdanek. The Germans had fled the camp in haste, with no time to destroy the principal structures. Gas chambers, crematorium, barracks and watchtowers remained intact. Already in November 1944 — almost three months before the liberation of Auschwitz — Majdanek became the first museum at a site of mass extermination in history. Established by resolution of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, it was the first Holocaust memorial museum in the world. The focal point of the memorial complex is the Mausoleum designed by Wiktor Tołkin (1969), an immense concrete dome over a crypt containing ashes and bone fragments of victims gathered from the camp grounds after liberation. It is perhaps the most weighty physical relic of the Holocaust in Europe — a dome sheltering many kilogrammes of accumulated human remains.

Majdanek differs from the other Aktion Reinhard camps in the preservation of its original structures. A remembrance visit at Majdanek is a physical encounter — one walks into the original gas chambers, the original crematorium, the original barracks. For many visitors this is a more intense impact than at any other Holocaust memorial site, including Auschwitz. A standard visit with a licensed museum educator lasts approximately four hours. The route leads from the camp gate (on the left the immense Monument of Struggle and Martyrdom, the gate symbolising the entrance to hell), through the complex of baths and gas chambers, the prisoner barracks (reconstructed with original elements), Field V (men), Field I (women), the crematorium, to the Mausoleum with the dome of ashes at the western end of the camp. The dome of the Mausoleum is the most physically and emotionally demanding part of the visit. Beneath the dome lies a layer several dozen centimetres deep of human ashes and bone fragments. The inscription around the rim of the dome, in the words of the Polish poet Franciszek Fenikowski, reads: “Let our fate be a warning to you". For Jewish families the Mausoleum is the traditional place for the recitation of Kaddish — directly over the ashes of forebears. The gas chamber at Majdanek, preserved in its original state, still bears to this day the blue staining of the walls from hydrogen cyanide — the chemical trace of the commercial pesticide Zyklon B used by the Germans as an instrument of murder. For many visitors this is the tangible, physical evidence absent from other memorial sites. Photography inside the chamber is not done — out of respect for the place. Children under the age of fourteen are not advised as visitors to Majdanek. A full review of the camp requires walking approximately four kilometres over uneven ground — for visitors with limited mobility the museum offers an abridged route.

From a hotel in Warsaw to Majdanek a Mercedes V-Class drive takes approximately two and a half hours via the S17 expressway. From Krakow — approximately three hours via the A4 and S17 motorways. We typically plan departure between 8:00 and 9:00 so that the visit falls in the late morning. The return to Warsaw is around 17:00 or to Krakow around 18:00. Lublin itself deserves a visit — it is the historic capital of Polish Jewry and before the war the seat of the Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, the most renowned yeshiva in Europe. For families willing to combine Majdanek with a visit to the Lublin Old Town, the Jewish cemetery on Walecznych Street and the Grodzka Gate–NN Theatre (the documentation centre of Lublin’s Jewish heritage) we recommend an overnight stay at the Hotel Grand Lublinianka (a 4-star historic property in the centre). A two-day visit — Majdanek on the first day, Jewish Lublin on the second — avoids haste and preserves the proper weight of each part. The Mercedes V-Class offers full climate control, seating for seven, discreet driver attendance. In the winter months (November to March) Majdanek is a particularly physically demanding visit — the camp grounds are open and the wind unrelenting. We recommend warm layered clothing and appropriate footwear. The museum offers licensed educators teaching in Polish, English, Hebrew, German and Italian — we assist with selection and booking for each visit. For families seeking family-specific context (searching for surnames in the museum archive) we assist in arranging a private consultation with the research department of the State Museum at Majdanek.