On the 80th jubilee of the State Museum at Majdanek, we once again appealed to the public, calling for donations of the mementos left by the camp survivors to the Museum collections. This request was addressed primarily to the descendants of the former prisoners, who might keep some documents, photographs, or various items related to the camp history in their family archives.

The year 2024 is especially important to us as it is marked by important anniversaries – it has been 80 years since the final liquidation of the German concentration camp and the final evacuation transport of prisoners in July. At the turn of October and November 1944, on the other hand, the State Museum at Majdanek was established as the world’s first memorial connected with the history of World War II and the Holocaust.

The Majdanek Victims Remembrance Sunday is held this weekend. The event organised under the Museum patronage is held by the St. Father Maksymilian Maria Kolbe Parish and the 32nd Majdanek Remembrance Primary School in Lublin.

The State Museum at Majdanek once again participates in the European Heritage Days. This year the participants of our project will have a special guided tour during which they will learn about the people, who aided the prisoners. The help provided from the world of freedom saved many lives of those imprisoned behind the barbed wire fences of the camp.

22 July 2024 was marked by the 80th anniversary of the final liquidation of the Majdanek German concentration camp. The former KL Lublin’s prisoners, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Diplomatic Corps, local authorities, the military, uniformed services, and various organisations dealing with remembrance of World War II – on that day they all gathered near the Column of Three Eagles.

The account of the former KL Lublin prisoner – Bolesław Burski “Jasieńczyk” have just premiered. The memoir written down in 1945–1948 under the title Pawiak–Majdanek–Auschwitz and is now released in print for the first time thanks to the cooperation between the State Museum at Majdanek and the Prószyński publishing house.

The State Museum at Majdanek was founded 80 years ago. Since its inception, one of the main tasks of the institution has been to collect and preserve objects related to the history of the Majdanek concentration camp.

In October 1944, just three months after the liquidation of the Majdanek German Nazi concentration camp, a Museum was established on its former grounds. It was the world’s first Memorial dedicated to the victims of World War II.

Museum and Memorial in Sobibór received a special commendation in the European Museum of the Year Award 2024 (EMYA) prestigious contest. The award ceremony gala was held on 4 May in Portimao, Portugal. 50 European museum were nominated including 5 candidates from Poland.

During another ”Museum in Action” seminar, we reflected on how to prepare the text for the editorial process and how to plan the works on creating an exhibition. The course aims to improve the skills of our staff and to pursue the goals forming the foundation of our institution more effectively.

Nearly 15 speakers were invited to participate in the on-line conference "Museum exhibitions in the Holocaust memorials: from Bełżec to Sobibór" organized on June 4–5, 2024. It is dedicated to a broader context of influence and perception of exhibitions in the museums established on the former camp grounds. Register and take part in our event. It will be held in English, under honorary patronage of the National Institute of Museums.

A group of students of Jan Twardowski High School No. 30 in Lublin have taken part in a three-year research project titled ‘Bio(topo)graphies. Discovering the Lost.’ The aim of the whole undertaking is to encourage young people to jointly seek out individual life stories of Jews from Lublin and their centuries-long history.

On 19 April the Holocaust Remembrance Day and Day for the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity, we held a discussion on the post-war fates of the Jews from Lublin. Earlier, we paid tribute to the Holocaust victims.

On 15 April 2024, the inaugural session of the Council of the State Museum at Majdanek took place. Appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for the 2024–2028 term of office, a new Council has a task to assess the Museum activities and approve its plans.

"It has been taught: There is no Love". This was the motto of the Way of the Cross, which once again took place on the grounds of the former Majdanek German Nazi concentration camp.

We have lately commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the Lublin’s Podzamcze ghetto liquidation. Once again we recalled the tragic history of the Jewish inhabitants of Lublin during World War II.

With pedagogues and educators in mind, we have created a free downloadable publication "Pass on our history to the next generation". The teaching materials it contains allow you to prepare for a visit to the State Museum at Majdanek, as well as to conduct classes at school.

Around 250 individuals participated in eight workshops organised by the Education Department of the State Museum at Majdanek to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor was the final extermination camp of operation “Reinhardt” to be liquidated, and – in the hopes of the perpetrators – forever forgotten. The crime traces concealed in the autumn of 1943 as well as the evidence for the lives of Jews that were murdered in the camp have been recovered during the archaeological research and secured.

On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day we invoke the memory of the six million Jewish women, children and men – victims of transports, inhuman living conditions in the locked ghettos, executions, manhunts, round-ups, extermination in the gas chambers. The central and the most bloody stage of the Holocaust was perpetrated in the General Government under the codename “Einsatz Reinhardt.”

The German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on 27 January 1945. In recognition of that event, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed it as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It constitutes an opportunity to even more eagerly reflect on the tragic fate of Jews – victims of hatred murdered during World War II – as well as on the current situation of humanity in the 21st century.

We are proud that our branch - the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór has been nominated for the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award.

Recently we finished our nearly two-year-long campaign of commemorating the 80th anniversary of operation "Reinhardt." Between March 2022 and November 2023 we held nearly 50 various projects and activities that aimed at raising awareness about the genocide of nearly 2,000,000 Jews.

We are glad to announce that our latest book project has been accomplished. “The Infrastructure of Operation Reinhardt” is now available to the English-speaking readers