Majdanek Bibliography

By Philip Trauring

This document is not completed and is not guaranteed to be accurate or helpful. Hopefully it will be, however. Please e-mail me with any comments on the sources or document as a whole. Due to the fact that not all WWW browsers support underlining I have put all titles in italics instead.

Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.
A good overview of the Holocaust, it is intended to be a course textbook. It contains two good testimonies concerning Majdanek, one describing the daily routine and another describing inmates that read tiny copies of the Torah.

Bridgman, Jon. The End of the Holocaust : The Liberation of the Camps. London: Batsford, 1990.
Although this book mainly covers the Western camp liberations, it contains a chapter on those camps liberated by the Soviets, including Majdanek. It covers the reaction to the liberation of Majdanek, including the reaction of the Western press. The reaction was mainly one of disbelief, as shown from the conclusion to a cited article ÒÉmaybe we should wait for further corroboration of the horror story that has come from Lublin. Even on top of all we have been taught of maniacal Nazi ruthlessness, this tale sounds inconceivableÉÓ(New York Herald Tribune, April 28, 1945)

Death Stations. United States, 1946.
A film put out by the US government in 1946 documenting the liberation of the concentration camps. Specific to Majdanek, the film shows the crematorium, torture chambers, and an investigative committee visiting a warehouse full of victims belongings.

Dziadosz, Edward. Majdanek. Lublin: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza,1980.
An outline of the history of the camp, updated and republished many times in many languages Ñ including Polish, English, French, German, and Russian.

Feig, Konnilyn. HitlerÕs Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979.
A very good book covering the different camps. The descriptions focus on the specific purposes of each camp and how these were fulfilled. The aftermath of the events are also discussed, including what happened to the camps after the war and what happened to the prisoners, guards, and officers from the camps. The coverage of Majdanek discusses the museum built from the camp, how the camp was used to produce money for the SS, and what happened to the perpetrators of crimes at the camp after the war. The book also contains an extensive bibliography with sections on each of the camps.

ed. Gutman, Yisrael and Avital Saf. The Nazi Concentration Camps. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1980.
Contains the proceedings of the Fourth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference in January 1980. There are many papers and idscussions in the book discussing all aspects of the camps and the conditions upon which prisoners lived within them. Particular to Majdanek there are included discussions of the total killed(p. 190) and a survivor account of the camp and its conditions.

ed. Kogon, Langbein and RŸckerl. Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
This is a good resource documenting the use of poison gas for extermination purposes by the Nazis. It covers the coded language used, euthanasia, the processes at different locations including mobile gas vans, a large chapter on Auschwitz, and occurences at several other camps, including Majdanek. The chapter on Majdanek contains many references to relevant documents and letters found in various archives, mostly in Poland, however. The book also contains a useful chronology in the back of significant events concerning extermination, as well as facsimiles of documents, diagrams, blueprints of a crematorium at Auschwitz, and maps.

Lokin, Rutger. De stilte en de echo: Een fotoreportage van de overblijfselen van de Duitse vernietigingskampen in Polen. Respo'ty [The Silence and the Echo: A Report in Photographs of the Relics of the German Extermination Camps]. Breda, Netherlands: De Papieren Tijger,1988.
A collection of photographs of the concentration camps today.

The Majdanek Trial. Holland, 1976-77.
A film of the trial of remaining Majdanek SS officers and regular officers which took place in Duesseldorf in 1976-77. In Dutch and German. This trial included that of a female guard found living remarried in the United States, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum punishment under German law.

Marszalek, Josef. Majdanek: The Concentration Camp in Lublin. Warsaw: Interpress, 1986.
A comprehensive history of Majdanek. This book is probably the best resource for information on Majdanek, covering all aspects of the camp, including the construction of the camp, living conditions, extermination processes, and resistance movements in the camp. The author, who is Polish, does tend to focus on Polish prisoners at the camp, althoguh this does not detract from its overall effectiveness. It contains photographs of SS officers, people who assisted the resistance from outside the camp, escapees, and photographs of the camp itself and it contents. It also contains facsimiles of several important documents concerning Majdanek, such as receipts of orders for Zyklon B, transport prisoner lists, and an invoice for prisoner hair shipped to an industrial company in Germany.

Mencel, Tadeusz. ÒHitlerowski oboz koncentracyjny w Lublinie [The Nazi concentration camp in Lublin].Ó Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu v33, 1991, p124-137.

Rajca, Czeslaw. Majdanek: Concentration Camp. Lublin: State Museum Majdanek, 1983.

Rajca, Czesaw. ÒProblem liczby ofiar w obozie na Majdanku [The question of the number of victims in the Majdanek camp].Ó Zeszyty Majdanka v14, 1992, p127-133.

Sachar, Abram. The Redemption of the Unwanted. New York: St. MartinÕs/Marek, 1983.
This book contains the basic story of the Holocaust and how it lead to the foundation of the State of Israel. The section covering Majdanek contains segments from a speech by Himmler explaining to the guards why ÒThe extermination of the Jewish race must be totalÉÓ

Shapiro, Shelly. Truth Prevails - Demolishing holocaust Denial: the end of the ÒLeuchter ReportÓ. New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1990.
A compreshenisve response to the ÒLeuchter ReportÓ which shows Leuchter to be a fraud and the document to be based on false assumptions, false information and twisted logic.

Simonov, Konstantin Mikailovich. The death factory near Lublin. London: Daily Worker League, 1944.

Soviet Government Statements on Nazi Atrocities. London: Hutchinson & Co., ~1946.
The book contains statements and reports by the Soviet goverment put out concerning Nazi crimes, including ÒReport of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for the investigation of crimes committed by the German-Fascist invaders in the extermination camps at Maidanek in the town of Lublin.Ó The report covers the investigation into the occurences at the camp, and includes their findings concerning shootings, torture, gassings, the plundering of prisoners property and the GermanÕs attempts to cover up their crimes. Although there is no date on this volume, it was most likely published in 1946. The report on Majdanek was originally published in 1944, shortly after the libration of the camp.

Stern, Kenneth. Holocaust Denial. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1993.
Summarizes the different tactics of Holocaust deniers in the United States as well as in other countries. Contains some simple answers to some denier claims as well as a look at the future of Holocaust denial. Also contains the text of a denier advertisement and the transcript of a talk show with several deniers. The book briefly points out a glaring error in LeuchterÕs report concerning Majdanek(p. 73).

Tolkachev, Zinovii. Majdanek. Warsaw: Spoldzielnia wydawnicza "Czytelnik," 1945
A collection of photographs of Majdanek, issued in portfolio. The title, forward, and table of contents are in Polish, Russian, English, and French.

White, Elizabeth. ÒMajdanek: Cornerstone of HimmlerÕs SS Empire in the EastÓ Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual. v7, 1993. pp. 3-21.

Yahil, Leni. The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
This book discusses the pivotal questions of how the Nazis came to pursue the ÒFinal SolutionÓ and if the Holocaust was a unique event in history. Gives the number of 200,000 killed at Majdanek Ñ 125,000 of whom were Jews. Also, quotes from a tesimony on a visit where Eichmann said ÒGet rid of the whole pile [of garbage]Ó refering to the inmates standing at attention for his visit.

unorganized and unchecked references:

NY Times april 28 1945 - h.w. lawrence "I have just seen the most terrible..."

NYT april 29 - editorial on h.w lawrence "civilization itself was on trial"

NY herald tribune april 28 1945

Christian Science Monitor,z sept. 18, 1944, alexander werth - 2nd western news story

Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremburg Military tribunals. 15 vol. 1951-2. v5. p694-7, 706-9, 710, 711, 713, 727-31, 844, 1148, 1149

Archives of the Holocaust - Edited by S. Milton and R. Klemig, Garland publishing inc., NY and London, 1990.