We invite you to see a slightly different perspective of learning about experiences of the prisoners of KL Lublin. This time, we present fragments of this difficult history written in their own poems.

In this thread we describe the escapes from Majdanek, external work groups, transports, and labour camps in Lublin.

On 19 March 1944, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate issued an evacuation order concerning KL Lublin. In the collection of ten outlines we reveal the details regarding that part of Majdanek's history.

„Tomorrow will be better” – in February 1943, Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk used these words to finish the first broadcast of Radio Majdanek. We hope that through these series we will not only discover the history of Majdanek itself, but also find a model worth following in the current difficult period we are all struggling with.

In this thread we present the stories of people who experienced love in the times and place that did not at all favour such feelings. Those cases of love were either born behind the barbed wires of Majdanek or were put to a test through separation and detention at the concentration camp.

While some of them have not survived and were lost during the difficult post-war period, some remained intact but were relocated. Some of the works look different today than during the war as their polychromy has with time lost its intensity. For the prisoners of the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek though, it was the hidden messages embedded in these sculptures that proved the most important.

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. 80 years after the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Museum in cooperation with the Prószyński Media publishing house, is releasing a new edition of this source. What is this document about? What makes it so important? We encourage you to read the article on this unique source.

In November 2021, the archival resources of the State Museum at Majdanek were enriched by two secret messages written by Tadeusz Tuz to his family. In 1944 he was imprisoned in the Lublin Castle and then shot at the Majdanek camp.

On October 1, 1942, the first female prisoners arrived at Majdanek. The date marks the creation of Frauenkonzentrationslager [FKL] – the women’s concentration camp established at prisoner field V. The first women imprisoned at Majdanek were the Polish prisoners displaced from two districts of Lublin – Wieniawa and Dziesiąta, as well as the Jewish inmates deported from the ghettos in Bełżyce and the ghetto at Majdan Tatarski in Lublin.

The objects belonging to the murdered that can be seen at the permanent exhibition at the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór were found during archaeological research conducted on the grounds of the former German death camp. The few pieces of jewellery that have survived to this day were probably lost by their owners after leaving the train or overlooked during the segregation of property. One such item is a brass brooch with an embossed genre scene.

The fate of the Jewish Kral family from Vienna

A historical cycle concerning the activity of the Home Army intelligence in the Majdanek camp.

A cycle presenting history of air raids on Lublin during World War II.

Although in the autumn of 1941 construction works at Majdanek were being carried out by the Jewish prisoners from the Lublin labour camp at Lipowa Street and the Jews from Lublin, the victims forced to work were not prisoners of KL Lublin itself. However, after the fiasco of plans to use large groups of Soviet POWs as labourers, from December 1941 to January 1942 several hundred Jews from Lublin and nearby towns were deported to Majdanek.

The State Museum at Majdanek has begun work on preparing unpublished memoirs of Bolesław Burski (1905–1981), a descendant of Poles exiled to Siberia [Pol.: Sybiracy], an activist of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), a Home Army soldier, and a prisoner of German concentration camps at Majdanek and Auschwitz.

In late April, 1942, the Germans created “the model ghetto” at Majdan Tatarski – a suburban industrial district of Lublin. The functioning of the second closed quarter established in the city was inextricably connected with another nearby facility – the Majdanek concentration camp.

Over 11,000 objects were found during archaeological research conducted in the area of ​​the former German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór. Personal items belonging to the victims of the Holocaust constitute a significant part of this collection.

Exhibits from the grounds of the former German death camp in Sobibór consitute part of the collections of the State Museum at Majdanek. The Sobibór collection currently comprises over 9,000 objects entered into the museum inventory and uncovered during the archaeological excavations conducted in the years 2000–2017.

Konzentrationslager Lublin, established in the autumn of 1941, was an integral element of German plans for the Germanization of eastern territories. The Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler entrusted the implementation of this project to Odilo Globocnik, the SS and police leader in the Lublin District.

By the decision of KL Lublin’s commander, in October 1942 a concentration camp meant for 5.000 women was created within field V of Majdanek. Frauen Konzentrationslager (FKL) was an almost autonomous entity which although answered directly to the camp’s commander, was entirely governed and manned by SS Aufseherinen – the female guards led by the head overseer Else Ehrich.

Extermination installations were built at Majdanek – most sources indicate – at the inspiration of Odilo Globocnik. Additionally, we can assume that the decision to build chambers for murdering people at KL Lublin was indirectly related to Himmler’s order dated 19 July 1942, in which he set the date of 31 December 1942, as the deadline for ‘cleansing’ the General Government of Jews.

Let us recall the figure of Father Emilian Kowcz - Greek-Catholic priest who was detained at Majdanek as a result of his aid given, among many others, to Jews. He died in the camp in 1944.

In September 2018 a collection of archives related to Doctor Jan Klonowski was added to the Museum's collections. The remembrances were donated by Antoni Klonowski, his son.

Prisoners of stalags, oflags and the Majdanek camp and Lublin Castle referred to her as ‘Aunt Antonina’ or ‘Dear Mother,’ whereas for habitants of Lublin she was known as a patriotic and social activist, whose social activity was honoured by naming one of the streets of the city after her.