Majdanek, situated in the south-eastern suburbs of Lublin in German-occupied Poland, was originally established in late 1941 as a camp for prisoners of war. However, it soon evolved into a full-scale concentration and extermination camp. Built under orders from Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, and administered by Odilo Globočnik, the SS and Police Leader in the Lublin district, Majdanek was intended to serve both economic and genocidal purposes. The camp was designed to house up to 150,000 prisoners, making it, at least on paper, one of the largest camps in all of occupied Europe. However, logistical challenges and the changing tide of war prevented the Nazis from fully realizing this vast plan.
Majdanek consisted of three main sectors: the SS administrative area, an economic zone with workshops and storage buildings, and the prisoners’ camp. The latter contained five fields of wooden barracks, where inmates were forced to live in conditions so primitive and overcrowded that disease and death spread rapidly. Basic sanitation was virtually nonexistent. Prisoners endured freezing temperatures in winter and sweltering heat in summer, often with broken windows and little protection from the elements. Over time, barracks intended for a few hundred people housed more than a thousand, creating a breeding ground for lice, typhus, and other deadly illnesses.
Join World History channel and get access to benefits:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKy_pNKZBX4KcCct8505HA/join
Disclaimer: All opinions and comments below are from members of the public and do not reflect the views of World History channel.
We do not accept promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on attributes such as: race, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation. World History has right to review the comments and delete them if they are deemed inappropriate.
► CLICK the SUBSCRIBE button for more interesting clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKy_pNKZBX4KcCct8505HA/?sub_confirmation=1
#worldhistory
#history
#worldwar2videos
