History Highlights

History in the Background

A series of short clips in which we analyse the archival photographs from the time of the camp’s functioning and the first years of the Museum.

Counterfeit Countess

The Remarkable History of Janina Spinner Mehlberg

Historians' Debates About Operation "Reinhardt"

The establishment of the ghetto at Majdan Tatarski and the first selection among Jews in KL Lublin

A graphic showing the boundaries of the ghetto in Majdan Tatarski against the background of the modern street grid

In late April, 1942, the Germans created “the model ghetto” at Majdan Tatarski – a suburban industrial district of Lublin. The functioning of the second closed quarter established in the city was inextricably connected with another nearby facility – the Majdanek concentration camp.

Femininity in the torrid time

Photograph of items belonging to women – small combs, hair clips, jewelry

Women’s barracks were of better quality in comparison to the stable-type barracks at fields III and IV that didn’t even have any windows. Nevertheless, the female prisoners of Majdanek were quartered in very harsh conditions.

Operation “Erntefest”

On 3–4 November 1943, the Germans murdered over 42,000 of Jewish women, children, and men – prisoners of camps located in the Lublin district. Executions took place in three locations – at Majdanek, and in the labour camps in Trawniki and Poniatowa. The genocidal operation was assigned with the codename “Erntefest”.