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Majdanek Concentration Camp

German concentration camp WW2-Holocaust-Poland.

Location of Majdanek on the outskirts of Lublin in present day Poland. Known for Mass Murder during the Holocaust

Location Near Lublin, General Government (German-occupied Poland). Operated by SS-Totenkopfverbände

Original use: Forced labor

Operational: October 1, 1941 – July 22, 1944

Inmates: Jews, Poles

Killed Estimated 78,000

Liberated by Soviet Union, July 22, 1944

Majdanek, or KL Lublin, was a German concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. Although initially purposed for forced labor rather than extermination, the camp was used to kill people on an industrial scale during Operation Reinhard, the German plan to murder all Jews within their own General Government territory of Poland. The camp, which operated from October 1, 1941, until July 22, 1944, was captured nearly intact, because the rapid advance of the Soviet Red Army during Operation Bagration prevented the SS from destroying most of its infrastructure, and the inept Deputy Camp Commandant Anton Thernes failed in his task of removing incriminating evidence of war crimes. Therefore, Majdanek became the first concentration camp discovered by Allied forces.[3] Also known to the SS as Konzentrationslager (KL) Lublin, Majdanek remains the best-preserved Nazi concentration camp of the Holocaust.

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Uploaded on January 30, 2016
Taken on May 19, 2014