Majdanek: A Killing Centre?

The ultimate purpose of Majdanek is still debatable to this day. Undeniably, Majdanek fulfilled many different functions throughout its existence as a forced-labour camp turned concentration camp turned extermination centre. Barbara Schwindt emphasises that the initial role of Majdanek as a forced-labour cannot be overlooked, which is in line with the fact that the expertise of Max Koegel (previously commandant at Ravensbrück), as well as female guards, was required when setting up the women’s camp in 1942, something which would not have been necessary if Majdanek was just an extermination camp (Schwindt, 76-112 and Mailänder, 44). However, this cannot deny the main function of Majdanek come the end of its existence, which was as an extermination camp due to the intensifying of the Nazi “final solution”. What this is actually representative, however, is how the function of Majdanek was never actually set; Mailänder argues that “Majdanek was, in essence, a product of Nazi policies of wartime occupation and extermination” (Mailander, 43). Going back to Shwindt’s claims, this is reflected in its operations from 1941 through 1942, as Majdanek mainly functioned to achieve one of Operation Reinhard’s goals of economic exploitation of Jews, while the goal of extermination was achieved largely by other killing centres such as Auschwitz and Belzec. Therefore, Majdanek’s evolution to a significant killing centre from late 1942 to 1944 is best representative of the reshuffling of the goals of Operation Reinhard and the “final solution” to focus on extermination, perhaps as a result of military setbacks against the USSR causing the Nazi policy of ‘Living Space’ to focus largely on the Generalgouvernement area in occupied Poland.

            This is not to say that killings hadn’t occurred at Majdanek before its reconditioning into an extermination centre, just that they had not represented its primary function. It should be noted that as a result of the SS destroying most of the records before abandoning Majdanek in 1944, it is extremely difficult to accurately track Majdanek’s evolution from a statistical standpoint since most of the figures are estimates. What this does allow for, however, is debate around the extent to which Majdanek was used as a killing centre. Inmates had been dying due to poor conditions since its inception, compounded by the fact that since the beginning prisoners of war and inmates who were too old or sick to work were killed. However, regarding the systematic murder of Jews in line with the Nazi “final solution”, it was some time after the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 that this began to dominate operations in the Generalgouvernement area (Mailänder, 31). However, gas chambers were not built into Majdanek until October 1942, while other death camps in the Lublin district such as Bełzec had been in operation since March 1942, the same month that the mass deportation of Jews from Galicia to Bełzec began where 18,000 Jews were killed in a matter of days (Mailänder, 31). This delay in Majdanek’s gassing operations supports the theory that, at least for a while, its primary purpose was as a ‘runoff’ camp housing surplus prisoners to exploit for labour while mass extermination was initially focused at other camps such as Bełzec and Auschwitz.

However, Majdanek’s gassing facilities were constructed swiftly (USHMM), suggesting that its own operation as a centre for mass extermination was also underfoot promptly. Indeed, this is reflected in the both figures the figures for the number of prisoners, (especially Jews) deported to Majdanek in the summer/fall of 1942 as well as 1943, as well as Majdanek’s mortality rate over the period. Indeed, after the Bełzec killing centre closed down in 1942 25,000 Jewish prisoners were transferred to Majdanek and although it is unknown exactly what their fates were, in light of Majdanek’s high mortality rates from August 1943 (7.67% for men and 4.41% for women) listed by the WVHA it is reasonable to suspect that a significant amount were killed (USHMM). Furthermore, as indicated by recent research, some 74,000 to 90,000 Jews were deported by the SS to the Majdanek main camp alone; given the fact that its population seldom exceeded 15,000 at one time (as well as a significant influx of non-Jewish prisoners) as well as that the SS engaged in falsification of mortality figures (to an extent) (USHMM), there is reason to suspect that the number of prisoners killed at Majdanek was even higher over this period than most people think. Eventually, after attempted revolts at Treblinka in August 1943 and Sobibor in October 1943, the Nazi government put into place Operation ‘Ertenfest’ (Harvest Festival) which effectively exterminated the rest of the Jews in Majdanek with very few remaining afterwards. Finally, it is important to note that not all of the deaths that occurred at Majdanek were as a result of systematic mass murder; Tomas Kranz argued that 60% of the camp’s victims died as a result of the gruesome conditions at the camp, including starvation, forced labour, lack of sanitation and disease, and brutal physical abuse at the hands of camp staff and guards (Mailänder, 44). The overall take from this should be Majdanek was a multifunctional camp during its existence, responding to the changing Nazi aims and methods of exploiting and murdering Jews, which were ultimately its most underlying characteristics throughout.

            Perhaps as a side note, it is worth examining the other functions of Majdanek as it evolved from a labour camp to eventual site for mass extermination of Jews. In December 1943, Majdanek became a camp where prisoners who were unable to work were sent, but due to the appalling conditions this was essentially a drawn-out death sentence (USHMM). As a result of its location in the Generalgouvernement area, Majdanek also served as a site to house Polish political prisoners as well as the rural Polish population; due to the activity of the Polish resistance, by December 1943 more than 40,000 Polish political prisoners had been transferred to Majdanek (Mailänder, 32). As well as supplementing the number of prisoners, this also gave Majdanek the aspect of an organised political scene, with nearly every Polish party and resistance group having a presence in the camp, aided by the employment of some civilian contractors on projects within the camp who would carry messages to keep the exiled Polish government informed of conditions (USHMM). While there were some escapes, particularly in 1942 when the camp was still under construction and more than 100 Soviet POWs fled in several mass attempts, there numbers were few and far in between, especially when compared to the mortality figures (USHMM).