Lublin – Majdanek Concentration Camp (Barracks)

A photo from one of the barrack buildings at Majdanek. Initially the prisoners at the camp needed to sleep on straw filled mattresses on the floor, but from early 1942 this bunk bed arrangements was introduced. Each of the barracks were designed to house 250 people, and even that is at quite a push, but they were soon housing over 500 people.

The initial intention of the camp was to hold Soviet prisoners of war and also civilian prisoners, so the standard of accommodation was meant to be at least bearable. There were 108 barracks erected in total across the site, with the conditions being ever more intolerable as the war progressed and the purpose of the site changed.