On October 16, 2021 the first edition of an educational session for teachers entitled “Historia Magistra Vitae est? A Participatory Visit at the State Museum at Majdanek – the Experience of Teachers and Educators.

On October 12, 2021, a group of students from the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, and Poland participated in a one-day study visit to the State Museum at Majdanek. Their visit was organised as a part of “New Ways of Remembering Together” – an international project coordinated by the Auschwitz Jewish Centre and the Kreutzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus.

An armed revolt of prisoners under the leadership of Alexander Pechersky and Lejba Felhendler broke out in the German extermination camp in Sobibór on October 14, 1943.

The ordinary of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, major archbishop of Kiev Sviatoslav Shevchuk; Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba; the ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Andrii Deshchytsia; several delegations of the local-government authorities from Ukraine and Poland, representatives of the diplomatic corpse and clergy, altogether paid homage to the victims of the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek.

The jury of the 41st Museum Event of the Year Sybilla competition 2020 granted the honourable mention to the State Museum at Majdanek for the permanent exhibition “SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor. German death camp 1942–1943.”

Holy mass in remembrance of the victims, a lecture, and paying homage at the Mausoleum – on September 19,
the Sunday of Remembrance is organised.

The exhibition devoted to Jerzy Kwiatkowski can be explored in the Visitor Service Centre of the State Museum at Majdanek.

Between August 31 and September 3, 2021, the international seminar entitled “From memory of places to the pedagogy of remembrance” took place in the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.

On September 11, the State Museum at Majdanek organises a free guided tour for Poles. The participants will learn about the history of the German Nazi concentration camp Lublin.

There is still a need to reflect upon the purpose and methods of educational processes organised in memorial sites of World War II. To create a forum for international dialogue on this matter a seminar “From memory of places to the pedagogy of remembrance“ for educational project leaders that starts today in the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.

We invite you to read the latest issue of Varia magazine. In this issue: a historical building that has gained a new function in the educational activity of the museum, a presentation of unique exhibits from our collections, a story of a daring escape from the camp, an article about the Soviet NKVD filter camp at Majdanek, a story about a Warsaw actress and singer imprisoned in the camp.

On August 1, 2021, Zdzisław Badio passed away. He was a great friend of the State Museum at Majdanek, involved in educating young generations on the tragedy of World War II, former prisoner of the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek. We will miss him.

On July 22, the 77th anniversary of the liquidation of KL Lublin was marked. In the camp, founded by Germans in the outskirts of Lublin in the autumn of 1941, almost 80,000 people perished. They were commemorated by laying down flowers at the Mausoleum. In the ceremony, held by the State Museum at Majdanek, took part the former prisoners of the camp, representatives of local authorities and Lublin institutions.

22 July marks the 77th anniversary of the liquidation of the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek. About 150,000 prisoners of various nationalities went through the camp in 1941–1944. 80,000 of them lost their lives.

Not only in Polish and English – exhibition catalogue “SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor. German Nazi Death Camp in Sobibór 1942–1943” is now available in our bookstore also in German, Hebrew, Dutch, Slovak, and Russian. For the first time in the history of the State Museum at Majdanek we publish our exhibition catalogue in seven language versions.

Undoubtedly, opening to visitors the men’s and women’s bathhouse, along with the building of gas chambers, following their conservation and renovation, was our most important undertaking of the first half of 2021. The newest issue of “Varia” magazine is devoted to them. Enjoy your reading!

The transmission of the actual museum space into the online domain and employment of digital technologies in reaching out to the recipients are dominant topics within the contemporary museum discourse. Both issues were analysed and discussed during the training course addressed to the museum employees.

Seminars, study stays, and workshops – activities for various groups of recipients will be held in the education facility of the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec that has just been presented to the public and media representatives.

The first meeting from the “Witnesses of History” will take place in the Visitor Service Center of the State Museum at Majdanek on June 27. Then the participants will take part in a guided tour through the grounds of the former German concentration camp.

On June 14, the State Museum at Majdanek celebrated the National Day of Commemoration for the Victims of German Nazi Concentration and Death Camps.

On 12 June 2021, a methodological training for teachers entitled "The only such a Diary – Jadwiga Ankiewicz's notes as a unique historical source" took place. This year's edition of the meeting on extracurricular historical education in post-camp memorial sites had an online format.

Fourteen papers and a transcript of two interdisciplinary debates – publication edited by Tomasz Kranz “Historia w przestrzeniach pamięci. Obozy – ‘miejsca po’ – muzea” has just been issued. It’s the third volume in the series devoted to martyrology museums that has been published in last years by the State Museum at Majdanek. It is a result of an academic conference held in 2019, on the 75th anniversary of the Museum.

The State Museum at Majdanek and the Prószyński Publishing House have signed a letter of intent regarding their cooperation. On May 14, 2021, director of the Majdanek Museum, Tomasz Kranz, and editor-in-chief of the books published by the Prószyński Media, Michał Nalewski, signed a document aimed at developing the cooperation of both institutions on publishing projects, in particular in the publication of memoirs by the former Majdanek prisoners.

The State Museum at Majdanek joins the observances of the National Remembrance Day for Victims of the Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camps. On June 14 at 12.00 we will jointly pay homage to the victims of KL Lublin by laying down wreaths and lightning candles.