Lublin – Majdanek Concentration Camp (Execution Ditches)

Located towards the rear of Majdanek, these are execution ditches which were dug in November 1943 to bury the bodies of around 18,000 Jewish prisoners who had been murdered. There are three of these ditches and bodies were stacked and then set on fire.

There are some questions about why these ditches were dug in a zig zag shape and why so close to the houses at the rear of the site. It’s said that the Nazis played loud music to disguise the sound of the killings, although I suspect it would have been hard to entirely hide from local people what was happening here.