10:00 | Museum Lecture Hall | The Battle of Lublin 22–25 July 1944, lecture by Krzysztof Tarkowski
11:00 | Visitor Service Centre | guided tours based on the testimonies of Jan Michalak and Andrzej Stanisławski, special tour of the Majdanek 1944. Epilog exhibition.
13:30 | Mausoleum | Ceremony dedicated to the memory of the victims
On 22 July 1944, the members of the SS garrison stationed in the German Nazi KL Lublin concentration camp abandoned the area of Majdanek, escorting around 800 prisoners whom they deemed fit for labour. Around 1,000 Soviet POWs–invalids, Polish peasants from the Zamość region, and Poles imprisoned at the Wehrmacht labour camp remained on its grounds.
On 24 July 1944, the Red Army troops entered the former camp area. At the same time in Lublin, the Soviet troops aided by the Polish Home Army were engaged in combat with the retreating German forces. The Germans withdrew from the city on 25 July at 1:45 A.M.
The lecture on the battle of Lublin, given by the Museum curator Krzysztof Tarkowski, will commence the programme marking the 82nd anniversary of those events. Then, special guided tours will take the participants through the former camp area to talk about its history through the lenses of two important accounts. Those are the testimonies written by two Poles and survivors of Majdanek – Jan Michalak and Andrzej Stanisławski. One of those memoirs is already available to the public thanks to the Museum’s publishing efforts. The other will be released in the autumn this year.
The history of Majdanek from 22 July 1944 will also be the final point during the tours. Our guides will then focus on our latest temporary exhibition, which includes a collection of photographs taken around the former camp grounds, mostly in the summer of 1944. The anniversary event will traditionally conclude with laying flowers at the Mausoleum to honour the memory of the victims.
