Majdanek
Majdanek in Lublin
December 16, 2004
We got to Lublin without any problems at around 11:10 then immediately headed over
to Majdanek, a death camp on the southeast side of the city. From the cab the scenery
was simply any Polish city, until we came around a corner, turning left we could
see on our right a huge field, barbed wire fences, and look out towers below the
grey sky. I stared in awe for the next ten seconds until my view was blocked by
a huge rock structure, a monument which completely dominated the landscape.
We got out of the cab and entered the welcome center at which point I was quite
surprised at the atmosphere; the camp seems low key and nearly empty. There was
a book store in the middle of the welcome center containing some maps of the war
time period, a theater, and some pictures of the historic camp.
We asked a woman there for the man we had a meeting with, but she understood little
and got someone else who understood English. They directed us to another building
on the camp where we nearly immediately met the man we were looking for. We discussed
many things and were soon off to see the camp.
The camp seemed very real as we approached it; people were scarce and it felt almost
untouched; almost in a state ready to be re-opened. On the left was a large empty
field and farther ahead of us on the left were the barracks. The long road was lined
with barbed wire and look out towers and at the end was another monument: an urn,
filled with the ashes of the thousands of people that had died there.
The scene seemed more real than Auschwitz seeing as how the field had been left
as it was or at least how I would have pictured it to be, the barbed wire was still
up and the only entrances were holes in the barbed wire, not locked shut with a
modern padlock. The lookout towers were imposing and made from a dark wood.
The end of the road was home to the urn and the ashes of thousands. It was quite
a scene and was again the dominant object on the landscape, much like the monument
that sits opposite it near the road. Seeing the dirt and ash made me realize just
how big this was and gave me a feel for the people that had died here.
That feel continued when I entered the crematorium and saw what felt so real and
so cruel. Upon entry we almost immediately saw a room with a sign that said that
was the place where they “operated” on bodies to remove any gold, silver, or other
valuables from those who were killed in the gas chamber. The table seemed almost
unreal and in the middle there was a hole, I suppose for the blood to drain. The
table was made of concrete and the room very cool, both by temperature and feel.
Next we went through the gas chamber, similar to the one in crematorium 1 in Auschwitz,
however much smaller – the feel was the same however, a dark concrete block with
only doors and holes to put in the zyclone B. It seemed almost claustrophobic, the
ceiling was low and the lighting was done so as to see little making one rely on
his or her nerves and not his or her sight.
The next room only contained a sarcophagus with the bones of some of the victims.
Again the lighting here was dark, however brighter so one could see the sign, display,
and the flowers at its base.
The next room was the crematorium itself; fully in tact the brick chimneys extended
towards the ceiling of the wooden building and into the sky. At my back was the
bathroom of an SS officer and no more than two meters away stood the ovens which
burned the bodies of thousands; a room for cleansing and a room for death and destruction
now one in the same without the old door present. The room was obviously lined with
concrete at those temperatures, however as soon as you stepped outside you again
realized that the building was no more than a wooden structure with a very tall
and wide brick smoke stack.
Next we entered the actual camp with the barracks, also dark wood, not unlike the
watch towers, however on the other side of the fence. The area was surreal and the
grass was uncut. It felt as if this was what it was like at times, and then seconds
later it felt like it had long been abandoned, however still untouched.
The barrack blocks were locked except a few that held exhibitions. A couple held
beds which contradicted the beds at Auschwitz in that they were much narrower and
divided, whereas Auschwitz’s beds were wider and shared by a number of people. The
beds were made of wood and not actually installed into the walls, but freestanding
with very narrow aisles in between each row.
Another room displayed the camp set-up and the camp’s goal, one which was thankfully
never fully accomplished. The camp was meant to grow to be much larger, however
due to it’s relatively short existence (compared to say Auschwitz) it never fulfilled
this expansion and ended in the state that it can be viewed today.
A third room was by far the most striking and not entirely dissimilar to the same
display in Auschwitz. It was the shoe room; thousands of shoes lined the middle
and sides, but not behind glass or in a warm room, but in cages in a barrack, where
the temperature was freezing and the air bit the skin. Yet this temperature didn’t
manage to freeze the shoes; they seemed almost alive within this unique atmosphere,
they had no color, there weren’t shoes from everywhere, but only from there. They
were all dark brown or black and they looked as if they were of poor quality. This
however didn’t strike me, what hit me was the smell of the shoes, it smelled of
foot odor in the summer, the smell of old shoes, the human remnant of the workers,
the prisoners themselves who had sweat in the fields just minutes away and came
here to their beds to remove their shoes only to put them back on and work the next
morning. Here I could picture the Soviet soldiers arriving and finding piles of
shoes and clothes, but very few survivors.
We continued on and I stopped to look around, however saw no one. The grounds were
empty and the biting wind reminded me of the cruelty that took place here. As I
looked up, I saw on the hill the city of Lublin, almost built to overlook the site,
almost as if to say look what we have done, look at what we are doing, yet the people
could do nothing. And as the city sat nearly surrounding the camp there was no life
left here; a city full of life yet here in the middle of a city a camp of death.
The contradiction seems impossible to overcome when one has such a perfect view
of the city in front of them and an empty field and barbed wire behind them.
This camp was almost built in the middle of the city, or so it seems. At the time
it was at the edge of the city, however the city now expands beyond the camp and
the Nazi name of the concentration camp in Lublin seems much more appropriate than
the modern name of Majdanek. This scene makes one realize how impossible it really
was to revolt or rebel, the city was there, thousands of people present, yet they
sat as helpless to save as the people in the camp were to escape.
As we left the field and exited through the double barbed wire gate we found more
displays in the old storehouses. I believe it was here that we saw the camp layout
along with some other uneventful exhibits. It wasn’t until we reached the gas chamber
that I was really awestruck; I failed to realize gas chamber testing had been done
here. They tested people with both zyclone B and a couple other gases, however found
zyclone B to be the most efficient as tests confirmed here and in various other
locations.
This display explained how the guards would put the gas in through a hole in the
wall and then they would stay in their booth as the process took place. To be so
close to death and dying, they sat and listened to the dying screams of the people,
the last minutes of their lives they were only feet away and actually initiated
this fate. They watched the people walk in and then dragged their bodies out only
an hour later. The guard’s booth was a true display of the people involved; although
no explanation is given, the question of how could they do that as they stood by
actively participating comes into question more than once.
The day ended with a walk up to the main monument and a finally look back onto the
camp, and the silence of the camp today.
Majdanek Monument