Many people struggled during World War II, especially the Jews and Soviets. Majdanek was one of many concentration camps, only Majdanek was mostly for the Soviet Union. There were very few Jews at first that made it to Majdanek. Majdanek was very harsh and was also very large, it was divided into six separate sections as well. I choose Majdanek because not many people know about Majdanek and I think it would be interesting to learn about a camp that not only deals with Jews but also the Soviets.
Majdanek was a very harsh concentration camp for the Soviet Union and the Jews. Majdanek was more a working camp than a death camp. Also it was the only camp that held a few American prisoners of war. Majdanek was located in the Polish city of Lublin and was open from October 1, 1941 to July 23, 1944 or open for thirty-four months (Holocaust-History). Many of the Soviet prisoners of war were too weak to work so they were shot. The secret service and police rounded up about 300 Jews and from the 300 they chose 150 to be the first Jews at Majdanek. Both the Jews and Soviet prisoners were forced to do labor work (Holocaust Encyclopedia).
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Majdanek was established by, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler.
Majdanek was not meant to be a concentration camp, it was suppose to be a prisoner of war camp for the Soviet Union and was supposed to hold up to 50,000 prisoners. Anyone who could not work or was too weak to work was shot in a nearby forest. Majdanek did not use gas chambers until September 24, 1942. After they got the gas chambers, that was one of the main ways they executed prisoners but mostly just Jews were gassed. They also used crematoriums, which they burned the bodies in. There crematoriums were in a separate building and Majdanek had three of them. Majdanek was just as harsh as Auschwitz and was just as big as Auschwitz
(Holocaust-History). The conditions in the winter were even worse. Many of the prisoners of war had to work outside and they did not have the proper clothes. Food was another issue for the prisoners of war, they were fed the bare minimum just to stay alive and be able to work. Summer for the prisoners was hot and the supply of water and other necessities was low, especially for working in the hot sun all day (Holocaust Encyclopedia). Another main reason why many died was because of torture and despair (Jewish Virtual Library). Majdanek was surrounded by six sub-sections. When the main Majdanek overcrowded many were sent to the sub-sections. One section was for women and kids, another section held many field hospitals, mainly for the Soviets, and another section was for male Polish political prisoners and Jews from Warsaw and Bialystok. Then there was a mens hospital, space for more gas chambers and lastly a section for male political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war and civilian hostages. Each of these sections had their own main leader and that main leader kept everyone on track (Holocaust-History). The women, however worked in the clothing warehouses and some worked in shoe repair shops. Most men worked in construction, helping build the new areas of Majdanek (Scrapbook Pages). Most Jews got sent to Majdanek because either the camp, they were at overcrowded or they were found in the ghettos of Germany and automatically sent there. Also most Jews brought to Majdanek were from the Lublin area. There were also about 45,000 prisoners transferred from Majdanek to other camps. About 500 escaped Majdanek and 20,000 escaped. Overall about 79,000 people died and 59,000 of those prisoners were Jews (Scrapbook Pages). Majdanek was evacuated in the summer of 1944 and was the first major Nazi camp to be liberated (Holocaust Encyclopedia). The evacuation started in March and was forced to stop in mid-April but the stop didn’t last long. The evacuation was back in action within two weeks of being stopped. Anyone who was too sick to walk or had a disease was left behind. By July 22, 1944 the evacuation had been complete. When the Red Army entered the camp a few days after it was liberated, they found roughly 500 prisoners of war left behind. Almost every single prisoner that was left behind was ill or dying so the Red Cross took care of them (Holocaust-History). All in all, I am very happy I chose to learn and write about Majdanek. Not a lot of people know about Majdanek, but I think they should because what happened at this camp is just as bad as what happened at other more popular camps. Majdanek was only running for three years, but in those three years, about 79,000 people died just from being at this camp (Scrapbook Pages). Majdanek has their own museum and when investigators went back into the camp, they dug up the bodies of the people who were buried then they burned their bodies and they buried the ashes in a mass grave (Holocaust Encyclopedia). Majdanek’s conditions were very harsh, weather conditions were not the best, and the prisoners lacked many things that would have helped their chances of living (Holocaust Encyclopedia).
During the Holocaust the Jewish people and other prisoners in the camps had to face many issues. The Holocaust started in 1933 and finally ended in 1945. During these 12 years all kinds of people in Europe and many other places had so many different problems to suffer through. These people were starved, attacked, and transported like they were animals.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) “Special Camp housed Jews from Poland who held papers, passports, entrance visa, etc. issued by foreign countries” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The “Neutral Camp was reserved for several hundred Jews who were citizens of neutral countries.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The "Star Camp was reserved for about 4,000 Jewish prisoners who were to be exchanged for German nationals interned by the Allies” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The living conditions were appalling.
Another thing about the Majdanek camp was that they had large storage houses to store the Jews clothing and all their personal belongings. Research says that there was said to be the SS deported 74000-90000 jews just to the Majdanek main camp. Not even with the subcamps of Majdanek. The SS had killed hundred of thousands of Jews at Majdanek over the period of time the camp was running. The most common way that people died there was of horrible living conditions and by dying in the gas chambers of the camp.
Kaiserwald and Auschwitz were both concentration camps used for the destruction of the Jewish race during the holocaust. Both camp’s are to blame for the deaths of many. Survivors of both camps live the rest of their lives with PTSD, anxiety and depression. Though they were freed they are stuck living a life sentence.
The Nazis also gassed Jews in other extermination camps in Poland: Auschwitz. Berkenau (the largest of all camps), Majdanek and Chelmno. At Majdanek, groups of Jews who were considered incapable of doing the work required were gassed. In Chelmno all of the Jews were gassed in.
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One is considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself.
While being forced to live in Auschwitz they endured many cruel and harsh punishments. The main form of punishment was the gas chambers. These chambers were cells that were made underground and were able to be sealed. Zyklon-B was the poison used to gas and kill the Jewish people. “It takes about 10 minutes to kill 2,000 to 3,000 people in the gas chamber.” (Saldinger p.57) After gassing they would then be extracted from the chamber and taken to the crematorium where the bodies would be disposed of. Sometimes it wasn’t even the guards who would dispose of the bodies, most of the time it was the prisoners who were forced to extract their own people from the chambers. This was just one of the many forms of punishment; there were many more and some were just as bad.
During World War 2, thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps. One of the most famous camps in Europe was Auschwitz concentration camp. From all of the people sent to this concentration camp only a small amount of people survived. These survivors all will be returning to Auschwitz to celebrate 70 years after liberation.
Thousands upon thousands of innocent Jews, men, women, and children tortured; over one million people brutally murdered; families ripped apart from the seams, all within Auschwitz, a 40 square kilometer sized concentration camp run by Nazi Germany. Auschwitz is one of the most notorious concentration camps during WWII, where Jews were tortured and killed. Auschwitz was the most extreme concentration camp during World War Two because innumerable amounts of inhumane acts were performed there, over one million people were inexorably massacred, and it was the largest concentration camp of over two thousand across Europe.
Bodies were often thrown into huge ditches located east of the chambers. Containing nothing but filthy, scrawny, and hopeless bodies. Five thousand to seven thousand Jews arrived each day increases to about 12,000 a day, though thousands were dead on arrival. This camp was the the last camp whose sole purpose was “extermination”. It was only fifty miles from the large city of warsaw, which blows my mind that people will still fully confidently try to convince people that the camps never happened. It became known as Treblinka I when the death camp, Treblinka II, was built. The camp was laid out in an irregular rectangle, 400 m by 600 m, surrounded by barbed wire and anti- tank spanish hors...
The Auschwitz complex was located in Poland and was composed of three main camps (Auschwitz). Auschwitz I, the central camp, was constructed in 1940 and covered approximately 15 square miles (Auschwitz). Auschwitz II, Auschwitz- Birkenau, was constructed in 1941 and became the extermination camp of the Auschwitz complex. In 1943, four large crematorium buildings were constructed (Auschwitz). The Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoriums were the targets of the proposed bombings during WWII. . Auschwitz III was constructed in 1943 and was primarily a labor camp (Auschwitz). These camps composed the largest and most infamous Nazi death camp.
“Concentration camps (Konzentrationslager; abbreviated as KL or KZ) were an integral feature of the regime in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The living conditions in these camps were absolutely horrible. The amount of people being kept in one space, amongst being unsanitary, was harsh on the body. “A typical concentration camp consisted of barracks that were secured from escape by barbed wire, watchtowers and guards.
Wars are good business. They create an immediate demand for a wide variety of materials needed by the government in order to fight the war. They create work opportunities for people that might not ordinarily be considered part of the normal work force. And, while not necessarily good for the soldiers engaged in the fighting, wars are always good for the businesses that provide the materials used in a war. The Second World War was very good for business.
The Holocaust was a very hard period of time for Jews from 1933-1945. The Final Solution called for the removal of Jews and other undesirables from their homes and eventually moving them to concentration camps in big crowded cattle cars. There were really only two possible options for these prisoners which included being executed in the gas chambers. Concentration camps were a place for Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled to be held and put to work. They were brought to concentration camps because they did not meet Hitler's standards. There were many different ways prisoners were executed including being experimented on, thrown into fires, shot, and gassed.
...throughout Europe as they did in Auschwitz and Majdanek. These horror stories are only a few out of the hundreds of camps that the Nazis built during World War Two. The Holocaust was a devastating event for the Jewish population as well as many other minorities in Europe. The Holocaust was the largest genocide that has ever occurred. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. This death toll is extremely high compared to smaller camps. These camps were some of the largest concentration/death camps that existed during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a tragic time where millions of people considered undesirable to the Nazis were detained, forced to work in the harshest of conditions, starved to death, or brutally murdered.“The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.” –Stephen Ambrose