Majdanek Concentration Camp Tour

A tour to the former Nazi concentration camp near Lublin-among an estimated 150,000 prisoners who entered Majdanek, 80,000 people, including 60,000 Jews, were killed – shot or murdered in gas chambers. Now visitors can see prisoner’s barracks and Monuments – Mausoleums containing the ashes of victims. This nine hours tour is a must for people who wish to see and hear more about Polish and Jewish history.

The official name is Konzentrationslager Lublin -Concentration Camp Lublin. The colloquial name came from the name of Lublin’s district – Majdan Tatarski where the camp was founded.

In the beginning, Majdanek was a small camp for POWs, later for Polish peasants displacement from Zamojszczyzna (A region in the southeast of Poland near the city of Zamość ). But after the German offensive in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, it has been rebuilt to contain over 50,000 prisoners.

From October 1941 to July 1944 about 150,000 of people have passed through the camp. They were used for work inside the camp as also in German industrial companies placed near Lublin. The number of victims was smaller than Auschwitz or Belzec, but the means of extermination were as cruel as everywhere or even worse. Executes by a firing squad were ordinary here.

The museum in Majdanek was founded immediately after the expulsion German army from this territory in November 1944 and before the end of II World War. The exposition is prepared with great care. It includes baths and prisoners barracks, gas chambers, crematories and German warehouses. Majdanek Camp is one of the best-preserved Nazi concentration camps in Poland. The mission of the museum at Majdanek is to tend to memory and evolve education about the German occupation in Poland. This tour also contains a small tour of Jewish Lublin.

Since January 2019 I am one of the official tour guides at the State Museum Majdanek.

Lublin as the biggest city of eastern Poland was one of the most important historical sites of the Polish state. Located on the medieval route between Cracow and Vilnius the city grew into an important trade centre. Before the outbreak of World War II Lublin Jewish community reached 42 000 ( 31 % of the total population ). The prewar Lublin Jewish community was very proud of Lublin Yeshiva Chachmei – one of the biggest centres for Torah study in the world, attracting students from all over Europe .

Isaac Bashevis Singer a Nobel Prize-winner frequently travelled to Lublin and its area and some of his novels are based in the city – the most famous is “The Magician of Lublin”.

ITINERARY:

Majdanek Concentration Camp – app. 3 hours
Old Jewish cemetery in Lublin – the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in Poland
Yeshiva Chachmei (Rabbinical Academy) in Lublin – founded by Meir Shapiro
Former Ghetto area in Lublin
Lublin Umschlagplatz on Zimna Street from where 26,000 Jews were deported

Other: Entrance tickets to Yeshiva – 20 PLN per person