Concentration Camp In Lublin.
July 21, 1941
On a visit to Lublin in July 1941, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the
SS and Police Leader in Lublin, SS Major General Odilo Globocnik to
construct a concentration camp in Lublin. The camp is intended to
provide a supply of forced labor to produce construction materials and
carry out construction projects for future permanent German settlements
in occupied Poland and the occupied Soviet Union.
Early October 1941
Following the choice of a site on the east/southeast side
of town, near the suburb of Majdan-Tatarski (from which the nickname
“Majdanek,” or little Majdan is derived), construction on the camp
begins in early October with the arrival of around 2,000 Soviet
prisoners of war.
Mid-October 1941
In mid-October 1941, Himmler entrusts Globocnik with implementing Operation Reinhard, which has four purposes:
mass murder of Jews residing in the Generalgouvernement
exploitation of labor of a minority of Jews permitted to survive temporarily
seizure, evaluation, and recycling for use all personal property taken from the murdered Jews
identification and securing of all so-called hidden assets of the Jewish population
December 1941-February 1942
Majdanek becomes a forced-labor camp for Jews within the framework of
Operation Reinhard. On December 12, 1941, 150 Jews, seized off the
streets of Lublin, become the first Jewish forced laborers in Majdanek.
In February 1942, the first non-Jewish Polish prisoners arrive, along
with more Jews selected from the Lublin ghetto.
March 29, 1942-June 15, 1942
On March 24, 1942, the SS Main Office in Oranienburg, Germany, informed
Majdanek commandant Karl Otto Koch that Jews from Slovakia would arrive
there in three days. Between March 29 and June 15, 1942, the SS diverts
around 7,000 Slovak Jews bound for Auschwitz and Belzec to Majdanek. The
SS also selects German and Austrian Jews off trains bound for the
camp-ghettos Piaski and Izbica and sends them to Majdanek as forced
laborers. Between March and June 1942 about 14,000 Jews from Bohemia and
Moravia arrive in Lublin District in 14 transports. The SS sends most
of them to Izbica and Piaski and, after it begins operations in May
1942, directly to the Sobibor killing center. At least 2,000 are
selected off the train transports in Lublin and diverted as workers to
Majdanek.
October 1942-September 1943
The SS constructs two, possibly three gas chambers at Majdanek to
eliminate those prisoners no longer capable of work. Reportedly, both
Zyklon B View This Term in the Glossary and carbon monoxide gas
are used to kill human beings. In one, possibly two cases, large numbers
of Jews are sent to Majdanek to be killed upon arrival, though
available records are insufficient to estimate how many were killed upon
arrival. In November and December 1942, as the Belzec killing
center closes down, around 25,000 Jews are diverted to Majdanek: at
least some, possibly all, were killed upon arrival. In April-May 1943,
the SS and Police deport between 18,000 and 22,000 Warsaw Jews to
Majdanek; it is possible that thousands were killed upon arrival.
Summer 1943
German SS and police units remove about 16,000 Poles from Zamosc county,
located southeast of Lublin in Lublin District of the
Generalgouvernement, and hold them temporarily in Majdanek. Himmler had
ordered the "cleansing" of Polish villages from Zamosc county as the
first step in the "Germanization" of Poland. The Germans expel about
110,000 Poles from the region. Thousands will be deported to Auschwitz
and Majdanek and thousands of others to forced labor in Germany.
November 3, 1943
SS and police units carry out orders from Himmler to murder the
surviving Jews in Lublin District, including the remaining Jewish
prisoners at Majdanek. They concentrate 18,000 Jews from various camps
and prisons in Lublin, including at least 8,000 Jewish prisoners in
Majdanek, and then shoot them in large prepared ditches outside the camp
fence near the crematorium. View This Term in the Glossary This is known as Operation "Erntefest" (Operation Harvest Festival).
The killing at Majdanek on November 3, 1943, was the largest single-day, single-location massacre during the Holocaust.
Also as part of “Harvest Festival,” the SS and police kill
between 11,000 and 16,000 Jews at Poniatowa and between 4,000 and 6,000
Jews at Trawniki. Himmler ordered the implementation of Operation
“Harvest Festival” because he feared more incidents of armed Jewish
resistance after the prisoner uprising at the Sobibor killing center.
The SS and police kill about 42,000 Jews during Operation “Harvest
Festival.”
January-May 1944
As Soviet troops approach the prewar Polish border from the east, the SS
authorities begin to evacuate prisoners from Majdanek to the west. In
five months, thousands of prisoners are transferred west from Majdanek
to Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Ravensbrück, Natzweiler,
and Płaszów. By early June 1944, Majdanek is almost empty.
July 23–24, 1944
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