Definitions for "Majdanek"
Keywords:  lublin, poland, camp, pow, nazi
Nazi concentration and labor camp with killing center near Lublin in eastern Poland. Opened in late 1941 for men and women prisoners. Initially, Majdanek was a labor camp for Poles and a POW camp for Russians; it was classified as a concentration camp in April 1943. Like Auschwitz, it was also a major killing center. Majdanek was liberated by the Soviet Army in July 1944; one of the first war crimes trials was held there in October 1944.
located in the Lublin district, general government of Poland. The concentration camp existing since September 1941 turned into an extermination camp when between April 1942 and November 1943 mass shootings took place to which 24,000 Jews fell victim. In October 1942 also two, later three gas chambers were built. In the beginning the killings in these were done by means of carbon monoxide. Later Zyclon B was implemented. Up until the dissolution of the camp in March 1944 about 50,000 Jews have been gassed. The camp was closed in 1944 after a major inmate riot occurred and several inmates escaped.
Originally a labor and POW camp for Russians and Poles, it became a death camp for approximately 250,000 people until the Red Army liberated it in July 1944.