SS Operations in Lublin/Majdanek

Majdanek was unique among other concentration camps in the Generalgouvernement with respect to the massive SS involvement in the camp, due to Himmler’s plans for the neighbouring city of Lublin. Indeed, the Order Police (Orpo) and Security Police (Sipo) both managed a section within Majdanek, their presence a result of Himmler’s overall plan to turn Lublin into a military-industry complex to supplement the war effort on the Eastern Front (USHMM). Majdanek, while under the control of Globocnik, was firmly Himmler’s project, intended to supply forced labourers for SS and police construction projects in Poland, around which German settlements could grow after the eventual extermination and relocation of Jews and Poles, beginning with Lublin (USHMM).

There were at least 270 labour details at the Majdanek camp, however the main purpose of its prisoners was to supply labour for SS-owned workshops and enterprises in the surrounding area (USHMM). As such, Majdanek is a prime example of the Nazi policy of exploitation of Jews as well as extermination, something which was facilitated by the brutality of the SS. Indeed, in his survivor testimony Abraham Lewent described how out of those who left the camp as outside labourers “half of them never came back” (USHMM), which indicates the clear progression of exploitation which would either result in death or simply temporarily postpone it. In 1942 Prisoners built the ‘Old Airfield’ forced labour camp across the road from Majdanek where both prisoners from Majdanek and Jewish forced labourers were made to sort clothes gathered in Operation Reinhard by the SS-Bekleidungswerk (Clothing Works).

As the war progressed, SS operations in Lublin became increasingly prominent due to its proximity to the Eastern Front. In March 1943, Globocnik and the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA) founded Ostindustrie GmbH (Eastern Industries, Ltd., Osti) in order to dually run existing and planned enterprises aimed at exploiting Jews in labour camps and their formerly owned assets (USHMM). Under Osti enterprises, prisoners worked at both Majdanek and the ‘Old Airfield’ camp mainly reconditioning aircraft parts, manufacturing brushes, and building an iron works with materials from the Warsaw and Białystok ghettos (USHMM). This progression continued such that in September 1943 the WVHA assimilated all of SSPF Lublin’s labour camps as subcamps of Majdanek, which technically increased Majdanek to a sprawling complex consisting of some 45,000 Jews working alongside tens of thousands of other prisoners on projects for the SS.

The development of this system of forced labour for the SS centred at Majdanek, while largely directed by Himmler’s own administrative ambition with the Generalgouvernement and Lublin, was also heavily subject to the aspects and aims of the Nazi “final solution”. Indeed, Globocnik used Majdanek as a medium through which to accomplish a triad of goals for the Nazi Operation ‘Reinhard’, namely exploiting Jews for labour, exploiting Jewish assets, and murdering Jews (USHMM). Indeed, the principle role of Majdanek was for exploiting Jews for labour, since it often served as a temporary stop for Jews and other prisoners on the way to other major killing centres such as Auschwitz. This is reflected in the development of SS projects and enterprises in Lublin, since as Operation Reinhard and the “final solution” intensified so too did the scale of economic exploitation through forced labour at Majdanek. The impact of wider operations within the holocaust on SS operations at Majdanek is also clearly seen with the fallout of the ‘Harvest Festival’ killings of Operation ‘Ertenfest’ in November 1943. As a result of these killings, barely any Jews remained alive in the camp, with a population of 71 out of a total 6,562 prisoners by the end of 1943 (USHMM). This effectively spelled the end of SS-owned enterprises in Lublin that depended on Jewish forced labour, with most shutting down although a few remained open on the labour of non-Jewish prisoners (USHMM). As such, despite the recent WVHA expansion of Majdanek in September of 1943, by the end of this year SS enterprises had taken a fatal blow as a result of the wider implementation of the “final solution”.

Majdanek did acquire some new ‘subcamps’ in 1944: the rest of the Jewish forced labour camps at Blizyn, Budzyn, Radom, and Warsaw (until April 1944) and the reactivated Lipowa Street camp. However, Osti was dissolved in 1944 and as a result SS influence waned significantly, such that the German Army opened up a camp in April 1944 at the Majdanek site where Polish prisoners were forced to build fortifications. The camp eventually abandoned on 22 July 1944 with Soviet forces arriving the next day.