Dokumente der Nazi-Barbarei: Die Todesfabrik Maidanek. Ein dokumentarischer Tatsachenbericht aus dem beruchtigen deutschen Vernichtungslager – Documents of Nazi Barbarism: The Death Factory in Majdanek. Factual Documentary Report from the Notorious German Extermination Camp. Stern Publishing, Vienna, 1946. German. This report was published amid the Nuremberg Trials, in response to voices after the war arguing that reopening the wounds of the past would not promote healing. The report declares: “To forget the concentration camps would be a betrayal of the millions who were killed behind the wire. To forget it would be a crime against our children…”
A detailed factual report on the destruction of the Jews in the Majdanek camp. The report covers the establishment of the camp, the first transports, the death trains operating day and night, the confiscation and sorting of prisoners’ property, the camp’s structure and its operations, a detailed description of the gas chamber’s operation and the use of Zyklon B gas, the phenomenon of prisoners committing suicide by throwing themselves into the electric fence, the burning of hundreds of bodies daily, efforts to erase evidence of the heinous crimes, and more.
The first part of the report contains only facts. The second part includes testimonies from former prisoners, including doctors, engineers, war prisoners, and even former SS guards at the camp who were interrogated by the Allies during the Nuremberg Trials. All the testimonies painted a clear picture:
“The first assumption made by the SS men in charge of the camp: anyone who entered the camp, whether they were prisoners of war or civilians, whether they were Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Jews, French, Greeks, etc., would be killed sooner or later. No one would leave the camp alive to tell what had happened. This basic assumption guided both the actions of the security team and the methods of exterminating people in this camp. The dead are silent and cannot say anything more. They cannot report details or substantiate these details in documents. Therefore, no one will have any evidence in their hands, and that was the most important thing for the Germans.” Additionally, the report exposes the methods used by the Germans to hide the stench of the corpses, a harrowing description of the murder and torture methods employed during the months when the Nazis sought to accelerate the death rate, including the tortures endured by the women in the camp at the hands of sadistic SS female commanders, and more.
The last part of the report includes the testimony of German General Moser, a senior officer in Lublin from 1942-1944, in a statement made to the Soviet High Command after the war. Moser detailed how the crematorium in the camp operated and the specific plan for the extermination of the Jews.
The report is accompanied by 10 illustrations documenting the Nazi atrocities. The illustrations were drawn by G. Markarch, who himself was a prisoner at Majdanek and recorded scenes he witnessed firsthand.
46 pages, [2] with wear to the spine. Good condition.
