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GAS CHAMBERS BUILT IN MAJDANEK October 1942-September 1943 The SS constructs two, possibly three gas chambers at Majdanek to eliminate those prisoners no longer capable of work. Reportedly, both Zyklon B and carbon monoxide gas are used to kill human beings. In one, possibly two cases, large numbers of Jews are sent to Majdanek to be killed upon arrival, though available records are insufficient to estimate how many were killed upon arrival. In November and December 1942, as Belzec closes down, around 25,000 Jews are diverted to Majdanek: at least some, possibly all, were killed upon arrival. In April-May 1943, the SS and Police deport between 18,000 and 22,000 Warsaw Jews to Majdanek; it is possible that thousands were killed upon arrival.
POLES DEPORTED TO MAJDANEK Summer 1943 German SS and police units remove about 16,000 Poles from Zamosc county, located southeast of Lublin in Lublin District of the Generalgouvernement, and hold them temporarily in Majdanek. Himmler had ordered the "cleansing" of Polish villages from Zamosc county as the first step in the so-called Germanization of Poland. The Germans expel about 110,000 Poles from the region. Thousands will be deported to Auschwitz and Majdanek and thousands of others to forced labor in Germany.
OPERATION "ERNTEFEST" (HARVEST FESTIVAL) November 3, 1943 SS and police units carry out orders from Himmler to murder the surviving Jews in Lublin District, including the remaining Jewish prisoners at Majdanek. They concentrate 18,000 Jews from various camps and prisons in Lublin, including at least 8,000 Jewish prisoners in Majdanek, and then shoot them in large prepared ditches outside the camp fence near the crematorium.
The killing at Majdanek on November 3, 1943, was the largest single-day, single-location massacre during the Holocaust.
Also as part of “Harvest Festival,” the SS and police kill between 11,000 and 16,000 Jews at Poniatowa and between 4,000 and 6,000 Jews at Trawniki. Himmler ordered the implementation of Operation “Harvest Festival” because he feared more incidents of armed Jewish resistance after the prisoner uprising at the Sobibor killing center. The SS and police kill about 42,000 Jews during Operation “Harvest Festival.”
EVACUATION OF PRISONERS FROM MAJDANEK January-May 1944 As Soviet troops approach the prewar Polish border from the east, the SS authorities begin to evacuate prisoners from Majdanek to the west. In five months, thousands of prisoners are transferred west from Majdanek to Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Ravensbrueck, Natzweiler, and Plaszow. By early June 1944, Majdanek is almost empty.
SOVIET FORCES LIBERATE MAJDANEK July 23, 1944 Soviet forces liberate Majdanek and find fewer than 500 prisoners left in the camp. The Soviets' rapid advance did not permit the Germans time to destroy the facility. In almost three years of operation, between 95,000 and 130,000 died or were killed in the Majdanek system; between 80,000 and 110,000 were killed in the main camp alone. The majority of prisoners were Jews; the overwhelming majority of those who died were Jews, between 80,000 and 92,000 in the system and between 60,000 and 72,000 in the main camp.
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