It is time to draw up a summary of 2024. It was primarily marked by two important anniversaries: the 80th jubilee of the State Museum at Majdanek and the 20th anniversary of creating the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec. In July we recalled the moment when exactly 80 years passed from the final liquidation of KL Lublin.

Throughout the last 12 months we have noticed an increase in the visitors’ number as well as a continuous interest in our online contents, including our “Varia” magazine.

In the last year the Museum received three important awards: a special commendation in the European Museum of the Year (EMYA) award and the main prize in the “2023 Sybilla” contest for the new memorial we created at our branch in Sobibór. The third important recognition was the editorial appreciation of our book “Maryla’s Diary. Live and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto”, which was acknowledged by the jury of the XXX KLIO contest.

In 20224 we also hosted numerous events, city space tours, and lectures that were eagerly attended by the public. The central jubilee event was organised in October. We hosted the academic conference “Past In The Museums – Museums In The Future” while in June we held the international seminar “Museum Exhibitions in the Holocaust Memorials: from Bełżec to Sobibór” to mark the 20th jubilee of our branch in Bełżec. Meeting the representatives of numerous museums and cultural institutions was an opportunity to exchange ideas especially regarding the future of museology and historical exhibitions fields.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Museum’s creation back in 1944, we unveiled a specially designed mural painted by Lublin’s artists on the front of our Visitor Service Centre. We also created a series of clips presenting our activities and continued to produce podcasts in the “Listen to History” series.

We also published several new books:

"Zeszyty Majdanka" anthology. Studies in the history of Konzentrationslager Lublin, ed. by Tomasz Kranz, Wojciech Lenarczyk, Nadia Sola-Sałamacha. The book contains the most important articles from the previous 26 volumes of our scholarly journal.

“Przeszłość w muzeach historycznych. Reprezentacje i narracje” ["The past in Historical Museums. Representations and Narratives"] book published around the conference held on the 80th jubilee of the State Museum at Majdanek that reflects on the current museology domain.

“Obóz zagłady w Bełżcu” [“Death Camp in Bełżec”], Robert Kuwałek’s book which is the only scholarly monograph regarding the German Nazi extermination camp in Bełżec.

“Pawiak – Majdanek – Auschwitz” the memoire of survivor Bolesław Burski, that have been released for the very first time.

“Nazi Death Camp in Sobibor. Historical Outline” prepared by Dariusz Libionka

This were merely a part of all our projects held during the last jubilee year. More information is available in the attached gallery with photos and info graphs.