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.

We present the new volume of our "Varia" magazine. The new issue focuses on the fates, camp experiences, cultural and resistance activities of the Polish political prisoners deported to Majdanek in January 1943.

Within the framework of teaching about the Holocaust, the Education Department of the State Museum at Majdanek prepared a series of meetings and workshops for the students of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie General education liceum No. 5 in Lublin.

On 4-5 March, as part of the 'Road to the Shoah' programme implemented by the Warsaw Centre for Educational and Social Innovation and Training, we prepared a two-day seminar for teachers.

On 6 March 2023, the Museum Council at the State Museum at Majdanek met. The Council members unanimously approved the report on the Museum's activities in 2022 and adopted the work plan for the current year.

On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day we commemorate the 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazi Germany during World War II. The number includes the victims of operation "Reinhardt" - the mass extermination of Jews in the General Government.

Is the concept of architecture relevant with regards to the German Nazi extermination camps – places where the SS-men destroyed nearly the entire infrastructure used in the mass extermination of Jews persecuted by the Third Reich? Were there any differences between the spatial organisation of concentration and extermination camps? Should historical objects in sites like Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, or Majdanek be subjected to reconstruction?

“The transport was very tough. It was winter – 20 degrees of frost.” – as recalled by Leszek Zabłocki. Exactly 80 years ago the first group of Polish political prisoners, sent from the Gestapo Pawiak prison arrived at the Majdanek concentration camp

Historical debates, conferences, educational seminars, film projects, and exhibitions –events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the operation “Reinhardt” were at the centre of activities held by the State Museum at Majdanek in 2022.

Throughout 2022, the Education Department at the State Museum at Majdanek prepared and carried out over 190 various educational activities for 5100 people from Poland and abroad.

Four objects from our textiles collection of more than 5,000 pieces underwent full conservation in an external studio this year. The State Museum at Majdanek regularly preserves the prisoner clothing from its collections. This time some civilian clothes with prisoner markings – two jackets and two pairs of trousers – have undergone this kind of work.

Just before the very end of 2022, we hand to our readers two publications: “Majdanek. Obóz koncentracyjny w relacjach więźniów i świadków” [Majdanek. Concentration Camp in the Survivors' and Witnesses' Testimonies] and “Architektura nazistowskich obozów zagłady w Bełżcu, Sobiborze i Treblince” [The Architecture of the Nazi Death Camps in Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka].

The State Museum at Majdanek and the prison in Opole Lubelskie announced the winners of the art and poetry competition entitled “Their ashes stayed between heaven and earth” organised on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Operation “Reinhardt”. Among the awarded artworks were drawings, paintings, and poems based on the elements of memoirs of the Jewish prisoners of Majdanek – Halina Birenbaum, Bluma Szadur, and Jerzy Pfeffer.

In cooperation with the Warsaw Center for Education and Social Innovations and Trainings (WCIES) we organised a special study tour for teachers of history, civics, Polish, science, and other subjects. The main elements of the training included exploring unusual methods of talking about the past, ways of working with the youth in museums – memorials, as well as the exchanging of pedagogical experiences.

The academic conference "German camps in the years 1939-1945 - current research fields and results" organised by the Wojciech Kętrzyński Northern Institute in Olsztyn was held last week. Among over 40 panellists presenting lectures on various sites that are forever marked by the tragic history of the German occupation during World War II, there were also the representatives of our institution.

On November 9, 2022, the representatives of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Director of the Mauthausen Memorial Barbara Glück visited the State Museum at Majdanek and the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.

On November 9-11, 1942, the functionaries of the German Security Police and the Security Service conducted the final liquidation of the ghetto liquidation at Majdan Tatarski in Lublin.

On the 79th anniversary of operation “Erntefest”, we commemorated the 42,000 Jewish children, women, and men who were murdered by the German SS and police functionaries in the Majdanek German Nazi concentration camp and in the forced labour camps in Trawniki and Poniatowa.

We would like to invite you to the next edition of the All Souls’ Day at Majdanek – a series of meetings commemorating the former prisoners of Majdanek. This year’s event is dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Boroń. The remarkable history lesson will take place on Thursday, 10 November 2022, 12:30 p.m., at the Visitor Service Centre.