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Majdanek was situated just outside the city-limits of Lublin. This was very unusual for a death-camp. The camp consisted of six parts: Part l: For women Part ll: A field hospital for Soviets fighting for the Germans Part lll: For male, Polish, political prisoners Part lV: For male Soviet prisoners of war, civilian hostages and political prisoners Part V: A hospital for men Part VI: A large undeveloped area planed to be used to build extra barracks, gas chambers, crematories and factories. The camp was liberated before part VI was finished. Majdanek was a camp originally designed for prisoners of war, but even from the first year in operation (from October 1941) most of the prisoners were Jewish. Unlike most of the extermination-camps there was some industrial activity in the camp and it was also more non-Jewish prisoners there. In October 1942 there was installed a primitive gas chamber in the wood. Later it was built more modern gas chambers with airtight doors and concrete walls. The chambers were initially made for usage of diesel-fumes, but after the huge success in Belzec one soon began to use Zyklon B in Majdanek to. The prisoners arriving Majdanek was, as in all the other camps, divided into two parts: One with people able to work and one with people not able to work. The last mentioned was sent straight to the gas chamber or to Belzec. The once who was able to work was put to work in agricultural and forestry. After the rebellion in WarsawÕs ghetto in May 1943 the 18000 ssurvivors were sent to Majdanek. The same summer the SS-management in Berlin decided that it, because of the rebellions in Warsaw, Treblinka and Sobibor, was to dangerous to have that many prisoners in the camp. November the 3. 1943 one could hear loud music from the speakers surrounding the camp. This to drown the sound off 18000 shots that fell that day. By the autumn of 1943 200 000 prisoners had been gassed to death and many thousand more had died of other reasons. In late 1943 there were made plans about shot down the camp. Because of this 17 000 prisoners was shot. The camp was evacuated in April 1944 when Soviet troops were advancing.
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