Majdanek: The Traumatic Time Of The Holocaust

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Majdanek The time of the Holocaust was horrific in so many ways and it’s hard to capture every situation through the traumatic time. Majdanek was one of the many concentration camps where these traumatic events took place. Located in Lublin, Poland Majdanek started its operation October 1, 1941 as an SS-run POW camp, to hold a max of 25,000 prisoners of war in the form of a labor camp under the command of commandant Karl Koch and the Waffen SS as its intent was to supply laborers for the SS industries. It became a concentration camp February 16,1943 when thousands of children, and polish Jews were tortured along with Soviet prisoners ("Majdanek Report."). The 2.7 square kilometer camp, surrounded by electrified barbwire and large watchtowers, was built in no time, as Germans needed a place to imprison those captured. The location was selected in Lublin because it was 5…show more content…
The location also was key as it could be seen from all sides without obstruction and surrounded by SS industries (Marszalek 23). The main burden of the work was forced upon the hands of the prisoners as Abraham Lewent, a Majdanek survivor, recalls, “The only thing you were doing in Majdanek was you sit for sometime all day long and they took you out to work and a half of them never came back. They make you sit all day long breaking up big stones to make little stones, or digging holes, digging ditches, and covering the ditches up. That was the work. That is what you call, uh, a camp what actually is annihilation…they annihilate people, actually” (Lewent, Abraham).

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