Over 18 thousand Jews were murdered in the camp at Majdanek on 3 November 1943. It was the biggest execution by shooting in the history of German Nazi concentration camps. On Thursday, the State Museum at Majdanek was the place where people paid tribute to those who were murdered. The meeting about perpetrators was also held.

Participants of the commemoration, such as representatives of voivodship authorities, representatives of the Jewish community in Lublin, former prisoners of Majdanek and the youth, laid wreaths and lit candles in front of the obelisk devoted to the victims of an operation “Erntefest” [Harvest Festival]. The students of the 8th Senior High School in Lublin read surnames and short information about dozens of people from among the murdered.

An accompanying event was the meeting in the Visitor Service Centre of the State Museum at Majdanek devoted to the issues related to perpetrators and psychology of evil. Beata Siwek-Ciupak from the State Museum at Majdanek presented information about KL Lublin staff. The gathered had a chance to get to know about brutal relations between SS-men from KL Lublin and prisoners of the concentration camp and about the meaning of the camp staff in the operation “Erntefest.”

The further part of the meeting was devoted to the issues of psychology of evil. Psychologist Katarzyna Andrzejewska, who focuses her research interests on mental mechanisms occurring in the staff members of the concentration camp at Majdanek, tried to answer the questions about people who committed crimes at Majdanek, e.g. who they were and what persuaded them to violence. She made it clear that the number of criminals with pathologic personality, who harm others, is relatively small. The majority of them are normal people who broke the rules between good and evil under the social and ideological pressure.

German units under the command of Jakub Sporrenberg, the chief of SS and the police in the Lublin district, executed about 18 thousand Jewish women, men and children in the concentration camp at Majdanek during the operation “Erntefest” on 3 November 1943. From two to three thousand German officers participated in the massacre. The units of SS-Totenkopf from Warsaw, members of the police (battalions 41, 67 and 101), I Zmotoryzowany Batalion Żandarmerii [1. Motorised Batallion of Gendarmerie], III Oddział Policji Konnej (3. Horse-Drawn Police Unit) and members of the SS from the camp staff at Majdanek were used for guarding and escorting the prisoners. The executions were committed by police security officers, among which were members of the local Sicherheitsdienst.