Despite the subordination of the camp at Majdanek to the central institutions of the SS, he still exerted a significant influence on the functioning of the facility during the mass extermination of the Jewish community conducted in the General Government (GG) under the codename “Aktion Reinhardt.” The staff of this operation, led by Hermann Höfle, was located in the building of the pre-war Stefan Batory junior high school at ulica Spokojna in Lublin (currently the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Lublin). Until the autumn of 1943, Majdanek was an important link in this genocidal operation. In relation to Jews, it fulfilled four basic functions: a labour camp, a reservoir of labour force, a plundering site and an extermination center.

The first Jews deported to Majdanek came from the Lublin ghetto in the autumn of 1941. They were employed in erecting the camp’s buildings. Large transports of people of this nationality began to arrive at KL Lublin concurrently with the commencement of deportations from the Lublin ghetto in Podzamcze to the death camp in Bełżec as part of extensive extermination activities in Europe. According to the plans of the staff of “Aktion Reinhardt,” selected Jews considered to be able to work were to be sent to Majdanek. They came both from the GG and from beyond its borders.

At the end of March 1942, transports of several thousand Jews from Slovakia, a country allied with the German Reich, and soon also Austrian, Czech and German Jews, initiated mass deportations to Majdanek. However, in time, Polish Jews began to predominate among the imprisoned, and in 1942 most of them arrived from Lublin and the Lublin region. In addition to work on the construction and maintenance of the camp, they were also used to implement other SS projects, which closely associated Majdanek with “Aktion Reinhardt.” Many of them were tasked with processing the property plundered from the victims in sorting rooms and warehouses located in the nearby camp at the pre-war airplane factory (Flugplatz).

In the autumn of 1942, on the initiative of Himmler, preparations began for the transfer of production plants along with their workers, from the ghetto in Warsaw to the Lublin region. Soon, Jews from Białystok were also included in these plans. The intention was to enhance the economic potential of the SS enterprises. Additionally, some of them were to be located in KL Lublin. The task was supervised by Ostindustrie (Osti), a company created in cooperation with Globocnik. From the end of April to the beginning of September 1943, tens of thousands of Warsaw and Białystok Jews were deported to the Lublin District, many of whom were sent to Majdanek. A similar fate befell some of the inhabitants of the last ghettos in the Lublin region. Only men and women who were able to work remained in the camp, while the rest were directed to labor camps in the Radom and Lublin districts, as well as KL Auschwitz. Jews brought to Majdanek deemed unable to work were murdered in the gas chambers, which same became operational in the autumn of 1942. Their first victims were several hundred people from the ghetto in Majdan Tatarski.

Although, the mass murder of the Jewish population within the framework of “Aktion Reinhardt” was carried out mainly in the Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka death camps, it was probably a consequence of Himmler's order issued on July 19, 1942 to finish the extermination in the GG by the end of the year, that Majdanek also became directly involved in these activities. However, the facility served an auxiliary role in the implementation of this gruesome enterprise, especially in the spring and summer of 1943, when thousands of Jews from the last liquidated ghettos were brought there. Throughout its existence, the camp had a very high mortality rate. Jews, as well as prisoners of other nationalities, died as a result of catastrophic sanitary and living conditions, hard labour, and were also the victims of brutality of the SS men and some functionary prisoners.

On November 3, 1943, both Jewish prisoners of Majdanek and almost all those deported from other Lublin camps were exterminated. It was an element of a large-scale execution codenamed “Erntefest” carried out at Himmler's order. Within two days about 42,000 Jews were killed in the Lublin region – 18,000 people perished in KL Lublin alone. The murder marked the end of “Aktion Reinhardt,” which had lasted since the spring of 1942. Shortly thereafter, several hundred Jews still remained at Majdanek, some of whom were killed, while the surviving ones were transferred to other camps.

In total, about 74,000 Jews were sent to KL Lublin, but no less than 59,000of them died or were murdered there. Only a few Jews deported from Majdanek to other camps survived the war.

From the very beginning, the extermination of Jews was accompanied by the plunder of their property. Unlike things taken from the prisoners of other nationalities, their belongings were not considered deposits, but the property of the Reich. Probably in September 1942, the exact records of money and valuables seized from the Jewish victims were discontinued at Majdanek and were registered at the request of Globocnik in the central file kept by the staff of “Aktion Reinhardt.” The camp’s administration handed over the objects to the SS-Standortverwaltung at ulica Chmielna (currently the building of the Ophthalmology Clinic of the Medical University), while personal and daily use items were transferred to warehouses and sorting facilities located at the Flugplatz, as well as at ulica Chopina 27 (currently the building of the Library of the Catholic University of Lublin). Currencies, items of value and melted precious metals were subsequently sent through the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office to the Reichsbank.

Author

Jakub Chmielewski, Scientific Department, State Museum at Majdanek

Photo by Stanisław Magierski taken on July 27, 1944