Photos from Majdanek

	This is the main memorial outside Majdanek, a suburb of Lublin. This shot is taken from quite a distance. The monument itself is a massive abstract dedicated to the victims of the Nazis. You can see local children playing around the monument.
	Behind the monument is a cobblestone walkway that connects to the actual walkway the Nazis erected.
	This is a view of the monument from inside the camp.
	This is the "White House" that was used by the commandant of Majdanek, Franz Stangl, who was famous for greeting newcomers to the camp in a fine, white linen riding suit.
	The commandant's house in relation to the monument.
	Directional signs.
	A close-up of the barbed wire fencing surrounding the barracks.
	A view of the double barbed-wire fencing as the sun sets behind.
	The large chimney of the crematory can be seen on the right.
	The last shot before we returned to the camp in the morning.
	This is a shot of the outer border of the camp. What was striking to me was how close the camp was not only to the city of Lublin, but also how close it was to the main road. Here you can see a passing car. This road was still one of the main arteries of Lublin 60 years ago.
	This is our approach to the covered Mausoleum at Majdanek. When the Soviets liberated the camp, the found this large pile of ashes right beside the Crematory and in front of partially filled mass grave trenches. Rather than bury the ashes, a mausoleum was erected around them.
	The small plaque on the mausoleum.
	This is a view of the ash pile from inside the mausoleum. Pieces of bone are easily visible, even from this height.
	These are the mass grave trenches to the right of the mausoleum, between it and the Crematory. What is remarkable is that the trenches themselves are still visible sixty years after they were dug. The small monument rests at the end of the walkway before the trenches begin.
	This shows the trenches running along the edge of the mausoleum.

	This is a view of the crematory from the mausoleum. I have seen pictures of this chimney for years, but now I never realized how disproportionate it is from the rest of the crematory.
	The text of the monument in front of the trenches.
	The crematory.
	This is the autopsy table, used by doctors in Majdanek for dissecting victims who had been killed through medical experimentation.
	The gas chambers in Majdanek were much smaller than those in Birkenau, and not as sophisticated. This was the air vent through which the gas pellets were dropped.
	This is the interior of the gas chamber with the many candles and wreathes placed there as a constant memorial.
	This is an interior view of the second of the five crematory ovens in Majdanek. You can see the movable sheet on which victims were placed.
	This is a view of all five crematory ovens.
	This is a view of the back soot trap of one of the ovens. You can still see the coal that was used to heat these ovens in the ash.
	This is a view inside the soot trap.
	This was a strange site. Outside the Cremo, the Nazis had cultivated a garden. To this day, some of the vegetables still come up.
	This was a small sign someone had placed in the garden.
	This is a view of the blocks where the prisoners were housed from the crematory. Unlike Birkenau, the prisoners at Majdanek only had to look up to see the cremo and the chimney through which they would eventually pass.
	This is a close-up of the barbed-wire system used at Majdanek. Between two rows of barbed wire, was a tilted grid of electrified fencing as well.
	This is the statue of the Three Eagles, which the prisoners themselves were allowed to make. The prisoners at Majdanek were allowed to create all kinds of artistic pieces, as long as the guards approved of the images, which is why the eagle was acceptable, as it was a national bird of Germany. At the base, the prisoners placed a small amount of ashes form their fellow prisoners. In this yard, prisoners were also hung by the Nazis.
	A close-up of the Three Eagles: their wings and bodies intertwined Mobian fashion.
	A close-up of one of the wooden barracks where prisoners lived. The foundation for the blocks at Birkenau, these barracks were actually designed as horse stables for the Polish Home Army during WWI, as Majdanek was a former military base. On the exterior of each of these barracks was a fire ax and a bucket of sand, in case the barracks caught fire. Of course to the Nazis, the wooden barracks were much more valuable that the lives of the prisoners inside.
	This is a view inside one of the locked barracks where the museum stores equipment.
	This is a prisoner bunk with a mattress made of straw.
	A view of the bunks in the barracks.
	One of the original blankets used by the prisoners.
	A sign in the barracks.
	This is one of the early barracks where prisoners slept on the floor.
	This was an entire barracks filled with shoes behind wire mesh. The entire barrack was dark, with no light except the light coming in through the open door. Unlike at Auschwitz where the shoes were behind glass, here the shoes were exposed to the air, which made the entire barrack smell of old shoes. The smell of human feet lasts even after 60 years.
	A close-up of the shoes.
	A sample of Zyklon B with an original label behind glass.
	A sign giving the camp's numbers.
	Another of the prisoner's sculptures: "The Turtle" (they also made a large lizard and a castle). This turtle was supposed to symbolize the prisoner maxim at the camp: work slowly.
	At the other end of Majdanek, where the museum exists in former barracks, is a second gas chamber. The showers were not fake here, though, as the gas chamber was created out of an original shower room.
	A close-up of one of the shower heads.
	Hydrogen cyanide from the Zyklon B stains the walls of the gas chamber over repeated use. The stains are a deep, turquoise blue and are the byproduct of a reaction with a chemical in the plaster of the walls.
	Another cyanide stain on the gas chamber wall.
	This is the interior view of the Nazi peep hole from inside the gas chamber. The company who manufactured this is easily identified.

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