Oboz zaglady - "Extermination Camp", by Simonow, Konstanty published by Wydawnictwo Literatury w Jezykach Obcych. Moscow 1944 - The first report on the Nazi crimes in the Lublin (Majdanek) extermination camp - First edition. Polish.
This is the very first publication ever exposing the horrors of the Majdanek camp, written by the Soviet writer and journalist Constantine Simonov, who served in the Red Army and helped liberate the camp. Rare and first edition published just three months after the camp's liberation.
Simonow, who helped liberate the camp, hurried to write and document everything his eyes saw and immediately began documenting it. Unlike other camps where few survivors were found, the Red Army found thousands of prisoners still alive in Majdanek, and an abundance of evidence of the mass murder committed there. In the introduction he writes: "After seeing what I saw, I cannot remain silent, and I cannot wait - I want to publish immediately, today, about this horrible crime uncovered, the things I heard in recent days, and all that my eyes saw... I was exposed probably
to only a tenth of the real traces of this horrible crime... And for now I only have part of the data and testimonies".
While in the camp he collected testimonies from several prisoners who provided initial information about the death industry that took place there. The unbelievable numbers of daily murders are evident by the fact that Lublin residents themselves would go outside with handkerchiefs over their faces from the stench of rotting corpses. Prisoners provided shocking details about how the crematorium operated, the various forms of abuse prisoners underwent - which he details here, how the camp's torture facilities functioned, how the Nazis tortured women to death, how they executed prisoners, and more.
The booklet is accompanied by harsh photographs from the day the Red Army entered and discovered the horrors. The 13 photographs featured are considered the first images ever showing what was happening inside the camp. For the first time, the world saw the interior of the crematorium, burned corpses of prisoners, the area intended for corpse burning, piles of prisoners' shoes, boxes of Zyklon B gas used for extermination, and more. This work is the very first report ever exposing Majdanek's horrors to the world. Parts were published by Simonow in the Red Army's internal newspaper "Krasnaya zvezda" ("The Red Star") over three issues in August 1944, and due to the exposure and shock of the horrific revelations, it was also broadcast on the radio for three consecutive evenings.
The Nazi concentration and extermination camp Majdanek near Lublin, Poland was established on October 1, 1941 by order of Heinrich Himmler. At its peak it held 50,000 prisoners. Between April 1942 and July 1944, extermination took place in gas chambers and crematoria. Victims were murdered upon arrival. The number of killed is estimated at 200,000. The number of Jews killed is estimated at around 80,000. Upon arrival, transports underwent selection - right for extermination (after showering, clothes disinfection and then gas chambers), left for life. The camp was dispersed in July 1944 as part of Operation 1005. Parts were already destroyed by the time the Red Army arrived, finding thousands still alive and immediately beginning to gather countless testimonies of the mass murder committed there, including gas chambers, crematoria and barracks. The camp structures survived the war and unlike others, were not destroyed by the Nazis.
22, [2] p. Good condition.
