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

During the study visit, participants explored the area of the former concentration camp at Majdanek, including historical exhibitions. They delved into the history of the concentration camp in Lublin and selected biographies of the former prisoners and perpetrators.

We commemorated the 80th anniversary of operation “Erntefest” in three places, where the largest execution in the history of World War II took place in 1943. Lectures, presentations, educational workshops, and artistic projects that we organised on 3-6 November in Lublin, Trawniki, and Poniatowa attracted huge audiences from among the local communities and gathered many profound scholars.

In the final days of October 1943, several hundred prisoners of Majdanek were sent to the area near the camp crematorium behind field V. Their task – as the SS-men told them – was to dig AA or anti-tank trenches to increase the camp’s defensive potential. The inmates learned about the actual purpose of those ditches several days later – on 3 November 1943.

On 21 October 2023, another edition of the methodological training for teachers of primary and secondary schools regarding out-of-school teaching at post-camp memorial sites took place. This year’s meeting under the title “Majdanek perpetrators – negative identification in the education on World War II” was an opportunity to reflect upon motives and mechanisms impacting human choices and behaviour.

Recently, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of prisoner uprising at the German death camp in Sobibór. The main ceremonies were held on 12 October, while the accompanying events terminated on 14 October with a ceremony commemorating the victims. It was a very personal ceremony, attended by descendants of survivors’ families, as well as by families of the camp victims.

Our new publication - Sobibór: Place, Memorial, Exhibition describes the new commemoration on the grounds of the former German Nazi extermination camp and the echoes of the tragic past that can now be discovered through reading the historical landscape.

On 12 October 2023, families of the Sobibór Survivors, representatives of many countries, international institutions, and martyrdom museums took part in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the German Nazi death camp in Sobibór. On that day, we symbolically opened a new spatial arrangement of the Memorial Site. The event was held under Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda.

We have recently began the renovation of the Mausoleum monument commemorating the victims of the Majdanek German Nazi concentration camp. With regards to the undertaken works, some parts of the Museum are closed to visitors. The visiting route and vehicle traffic organisation have also been changed.

The construction works of the new spatial arrangement on the grounds of the former German Nazi extermination camp have been completed. The commemoration will be available for our visitors on 13 October 2023.

In October 1943, the uprising broke out in the German Nazi death camp in Sobibór. It was one of the most heroic acts of Jewish resistance during WWII. As a result, about 300 prisoners escaped from the camp, from which ca. 50 survived the war. The ceremony commemorating the uprising is held on 12 October, at 13.00 at the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.

SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor was one of the three German extermination camps operating in the General Government within the framework of operation “Reinhardt.” Around 180,000 men, women, and children were murdered there. Over a half of the victims were the Polish Jews, and others included the Dutch, Slovak, Czech, French, German, and Byelorussian Jews.

The ceremony commemorating the 79th anniversary of the KL Lublin liquidation took place in the Museum on July 24. It was joined by former prisoners of the Majdanek camp, representatives of local government and institutions.

The State Museum at Majdanek begins the renovation of the Mausoleum – one of the most recognisable monuments honouring the victims of World War II.

We present our new book in which we analyse "Einsatz Reinhardt" – the largest and the most bloody genocidal operation of World War II, focusing on its logistics and the extermination apparatus.

At 5 p.m. on 20 June we invite everyone to the Majdanek, Bełżec, and Sobibór memorials for a special discussion: “The Landscapes of the Holocaust - the importance of the Lublin region in the history and commemoration of the mass extermination of Jews during World War II.” The root for the discussion, during which we will symbolically connect three memorial sites of operation “Reinhardt” camps, is the premiere of our new book.

In Poland every June 14 is known as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps established on the anniversary of the first transport of Polish prisoners sent to KL Auschwitz. The State Museum at Majdanek once again joins the commemoration of this special date.

“Charles looked at blue stains on the gas chamber ceiling and it seemed that his upper lip was shaking. Anger and disbelief were seemingly growing within him while the guide was substantively explaining that those stains were a result of a chemical reaction happening during the extermination process between victims and Zyklon-B that was used in their murder.”

On 22 April 2023, the State Museum at Majdanek hosted a nationwide conference entitled "Road to the Shoah - culture and pedagogy of remembrance in Holocaust education". The event was the result of the cooperation of the Warsaw Centre for Educational and Social Innovation and Training with memorial sites and cultural institutions, which organised a series of seminars for teachers in the past months.

The Holocaust Memorial Day and Day for the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity is commemorated on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In the early morning of 19 April 1943, German army and police units entered the Warsaw Ghetto, which, in accordance with Heinrich Himmler's orders, were to carry out the final liquidation of the Jewish residential quarter of Warsaw.

On the Holocaust Remembrance Day we present the new issue of our "Varia" magazine. This volume is dedicated to the subject of education at the State Museum at Majdanek, particularly to the Holocaust education.