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.

The collections of the State Museum at Majdanek contain an extraordinary diary – one of the most important testimonies to the extermination of the Polish Jews. On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising we are holding a lecture on “Maryla’s diary” which constitutes a vital record of the tragic events from the time of the Warsaw Ghetto liquidation.

"Maryla's Diary. Life and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto". Book premiere
"Maryla's Diary" is one of the most moving and unique testimonies written during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On the 80th anniversary of the events it describes, the State Museum at Majdanek in cooperation with Prószyński Media publishing house is releasing a new edition of this source. On 20 April at 6 p.m.we are holding a meeting around the book in the Visitor Service Centre.

The State Museum at Majdanek was visited by a delegation from Sweden - Paweł Ruszkiewicz, the director of the Polish Institute in Stockholm, and the representatives of the Raoul Wallenberg Academy.

The sound of the Bell of Peace began the Way of the Cross at Majdanek. For the 23rd time, several thousand people gathered to participate in this exceptional event.

The collection of the State Museum at Majdanek ) contains an extraordinary diary – one of the most important testimonies to the extermination of the Polish Jews. 80 years after the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in cooperation with the Prószyński Media publishing house we are releasing a new edition of this source

On 16 March 1942, at 5.30 p.m. Hermann Höfle - an Austrian Nazi, at the head of the so-called "resettlement staff", and the chief logistician of the extermination of Jews in the General Government - convened a meeting of SS officers, security police functionaries, and the German civil administration representatives in Lublin. The subject of the meeting briefing was Odilo Globocnik's planned operation to liquidate the ghetto in Lublin‘s Podzamcze.