According to the official present-day account of events in Majdanek, a total of some 300,000 inmates were admitted to the camp, of which approximately 235,000 died, 45,000 were transferred to other camps, 20,000 were released by the Germans and 1,500 were liberated by the Red Army on July 23, 1944.[105]

The remarkably high figure of 20,000 released inmates is not documented anywhere in the subject literature. Since we cannot conceive of any reason why official Polish historiography could possibly wish to inflate this figure, we shall accept it as correct.

In the following we will critically examine the claims made in the Polish subject literature about the number of inmates admitted to Majdanek.

• surviving documents from the camp office, as well as files kept by the gendarmerie of the Lublin District;

• documents from Polish charities as well as legal and illegal correspondence by inmates;

• materials drawn up after the war (memoirs, accounts and questionnaires of former internees).

Of the inmates known by name, Rajca states, 59.8% were Polish, 19.8% Soviet, 13.3% Czech and Slovak, and 4.0% German citizens. The remainder included another 20 different nationalities;[107] 25.2% were Jews.[108] As C. Rajca himself stresses, the percentage of Jewish inmates recorded here is clearly below the actual level.

C. Rajca claims that the 47,890 names corresponded to approximately 14% of the total number of inmates admitted into the camp, whose number he gives as 340,000, stating that another 160,000 unregistered Jews who were murdered immediately upon arrival must be added to these 340,000 registered inmates-for a total of half a million people who had come to Majdanek.[109]

If one reduces the latter figure to 300,000, in accordance with modern-day official historiography, the percentage of known names increases considerably.

We have reason to believe that the number of 300,000 inmates deported to Majdanek is still a gross exaggeration. First, however, we must show how official Polish historiography supports its figures. To do so we shall refer primarily to two accounts by Zofia Leszczyńska, the first from 1969 and the second from 1980. The first deals with the transports to Majdanek,[110] the second with those leaving Majdanek.[111]

In the anthology Majdanek 1941-1944, published in 1991, Z. Leszczyńska provides us with a synthesis of her two earlier studies and modifies her figures from those studies slightly,[112] but since she does not add anything new of significance, we shall dispense with a detailed discussion of her contribution to this anthology.

First, let us summarize the article from 1969 which deals with the transports to the Lublin camp. For simplicity's sake, where the figures themselves are concerned, we shall simply dispense with the frequently applied qualifiers "approximately", "estimated", etc.; as the author herself freely admits, by far the most of these figures are estimates. Zofia Leszczyńska groups her transports to Majdanek into eight distinct phases:

In the first half-year of its existence, the camp took in 8,300 people, including 2,000 Soviet POWs who were the first to arrive in October.

As of November, smaller transports arrived at Majdanek from other camps. Among these were doctors and orderlies, as well as Polish, Czech, and German inmates who could speak German and Russian; the latter were needed as 'functionary inmates'.

As of December, larger transports of Polish male inmates arrived (political prisoners from Lublin Castle, as well as hostages taken in reprisal against attacks perpetrated by the Resistance movement).

Between January and March 1942, eight Jewish transports arrived at the camp; the Jews in question were mostly from the Lublin ghetto and from towns surrounding Lublin.

21,700 people were taken to Majdanek from April to June 1942, including 3,600 Polish political prisoners. The reason for their arrest was generally either support they had rendered to the partisans, or their failure to report partisan activity to the occupation authorities. Most of those deported to Majdanek during this time were Slovak and Czech Jews. In total, 18,100 Jews from Slovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were sent to Majdanek during these three months.

Majdanek absorbed 22,600 new arrivals in the second half of 1942. Of these, 7,000 were Poles, most of them farmers from the Lublin area, who had been sent to the concentration camp in reprisal for attacks and acts of sabotage by the Resistance movement. Of the remaining arrivals, by far the most-15,000-were Jews, primarily Polish. According to eyewitnesses this figure was even higher, but many Jews were allegedly murdered immediately upon their arrival, without first being registered. Particularly large transports came from Warsaw. Further, 1,700 Jewesses from Bełżec arrived in Majdanek in October. And finally, French, Belgian and Dutch Jews were also brought to Majdanek during this period.

In the first four months of 1943, 52,700 persons were deported to Majdanek; the number of Jews (5,600 inmates) was proportionately small this time. 5,000 of these Jews came from the collection camp Drancy in France. Among the remaining 600 Jews there were 104 women from Grodno and Bialystok who had been sent to Majdanek via Treblinka. But the vast majority of those who were brought to Majdanek during this time were members of Slavic peoples. In January, large-scale raids had been carried out in numerous Polish cities, and for some of those arrested the destination was Majdanek. Many inmates also arrived from the east: Russians, White Russians, Ukrainians, as well as Poles from the regions east of Lublin.

Within these four months 62,300 prisoners arrived in Majdanek, among them 24,850 Jews. The latter were mostly from the Warsaw ghetto, where the SS had crushed the uprising of the Jewish resistance movement in April and May and leveled the ghetto. On May 13 the new arrivals included a convoy of 308 Jewish men who had been taken from Warsaw to Treblinka, and thence, after a selection, to Majdanek. Further, approximately 6,500 Jews from the Bialystok ghetto came to the Lublin camp.

Concurrently, Polish prisoners arrived in Majdanek almost on a daily basis. A total of 110 transports of Polish inmates have been documented for this period. In June and July the number of inmates in the camp reached its highest point. Finally, the trains from the east, crowded with White Russians, Russians and Ukrainians, also continued.

During these three months the Lublin camp took in 24,800 prisoners. This time, deportees from the east (i.e., again Ukrainians, White Russians and Russians) made up the largest group with 11,600. Poles from Lublin Castle, the city of Lublin and its environs, and from other cities were also admitted. Particular mention must be made of the "death transports", which arrived during this time. Immediately upon arrival, the victims were taken to the crematorium and shot. The Jews who were brought to Majdanek on November 3 from labor camps in the Lublin region and who were killed together with the Jewish inmates must also be counted among the victims of these death transports.

The number of those deported to Majdanek during this time approximates 40,500. For security reasons the SS sent no more Polish inmates to Majdanek after December 24, 1943, except for those from towns in the vicinity of Lublin. They were some 5,600 in number. The transports from the east still continued, involving some 9,850 deportees. After almost all Jews had been killed on November 3, 1943, another 4,200 German, Polish and Hungarian Jews arrived between December 1943 and March 1944, including 200 members of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando, who were all killed upon arrival.

The largest group of new arrivals was made up of 20,850 ill and invalid prisoners who were transferred to Majdanek from camps in the German Reich (Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Neuengamme, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz and Flossenbürg). These also included 300 blind inmates (on a transport arriving on March 11, 1944, from Flossenbürg).

Even though the evacuation of the camp had already begun in March, another 14,800 inmates arrived between April and July: 14,200 Poles and 600 Jews. As late as July 20 and 21, in other words shortly before the Red Army arrived, 800 prisoners were taken from Lublin Castle to the camp, where they were shot.

In total, then-the author concludes-246,900 people were taken to Majdanek in 694 convoys. Of these, 99,500 were Poles from the General Government, 77,150 were Jews, 51,650 White Russians, Russians, Ukrainians and Poles from the eastern territories; the remaining 20,600 were of various other nationalities.

However, the author adds, these statistics hardly encompass all the transports that actually arrived at the camp; many of them, she says, were not recorded, and accordingly the real number of inmates admitted to Majdanek is much greater than 246,900.[113]

So much for Z. Leszczyńska's data regarding the transports to Majdanek. Let us now take a look at the sources on which this Polish historian bases her arguments. They may be grouped into four categories:

• German documents. Regrettably only very few of these exist, since most of them were destroyed or have vanished;

• some studies published in Poland (which are not accessible to us, with one exception);

• news reports of the Polish Resistance about transports arriving in Majdanek;

• reports from inmates, smuggled out of the camp during its existence, as well as eyewitness testimony given after the camp's liberation.

Here is one example of a solidly documented figure regarding deportees to Majdanek. In her study Z. Leszczyńska reproduces a copy of a March 24, 1942, telex no. 803 from the Inspector of the Concentration Camps in Oranienburg to the then Commandant of Majdanek, Karl Otto Koch; the telex reads:[114]

If we also had the transport name lists mentioned in this telex, documentation would be complete.

Z. Leszczyńska now proceeds to take each and any witness statement as to convoys arriving in Majdanek and their numerical strength, and credits these statements with equal evidential value as this document! She clearly does not weigh evidence according to its credibility. And this is the Achilles heel of her statistics, which robs them of all value.

For example, the author supports her utterly unrealistic figures of Russians, White Russians and Ukrainians deported to Majdanek with reports from the Polish Resistance movements, which naturally had a vested interest in inflating the number of deportees as much as possible in order to emphasize its claims about National Socialist tyranny. For this reason alone, all statistics based exclusively on eyewitness testimony are suspect from the start, and have no value as evidence.

Regarding the Polish books and articles consulted by the author, one can make the fundamental assumption that the figures given therein, and quoted by her, are based on eyewitness accounts rather than on documents, for if there were any of the latter, Z. Leszczyńska would very likely have quoted them directly. The only one of these studies which we have been able to access ourselves is Tatiana Berenstein's and Adam Rutkowski's Żydzi w obozie koncentracyjnym Majdanek (Jews in the Concentration Camp Majdanek), published in 1966.[115] Z. Leszczyńska repeatedly cites this work as her source. On the basis of one example, namely the figures which Berenstein and Rutkowski give regarding the Polish Jews deported to Majdanek in 1942, we can see that these two authors rely primarily on eyewitness accounts.

In that year-so they write-36,500 Polish Jews were sent to Majdanek.[116] Most of them were murdered immediately upon arrival without ever being registered, which is why the camp documentation contains no references to them. Almost all figures given are based on witness statements: for example, the May 1942 deportation of 2,000 Jews from the towns of Belzyc, Międzyrzec and Zamość is 'documented' with the statements of one Mordechai Sztrygler and one Golda Teich; the deportation of 2,000 Jews from Piaski in September is established on the basis of statements by the selfsame Golda Teich and one Maks Auerbach; and the deportation of 3,000 Jews from the ghetto of Majdan Tatarski in November is verified on the basis of statements by one Ida Gliksztejn, one Julia Celinski, one Rywka Grynwald, and one Symcha Turteltaube.[117]

Z. Leszczyńska is very well aware of the unreliable nature of this source. For example, she gives the number of Jews deported from the ghetto of Bialystok to Majdanek as 6,500[118] and adds a footnote pointing out that Berenstein and Rutkowski speak of 24,000 Jews deported from the Bialystok ghetto to the Lublin camp. The sources cited in this instance by Berenstein and Rutkowski are the witness statements of one Szymon Amiel and one Efraim Nachumowicz.[119] If Z. Leszczyńska's figure is correct, then that given by Berenstein and Rutkowski is grossly exaggerated, which also makes all their other figures suspect from the start. But as we have pointed out, this does not stop Z. Leszczyńska from quoting this source time and time again! It is safe to assume that the statistics quoted from other books and articles as well are based exclusively on eyewitness testimony.

When the eyewitnesses leave her in the lurch and fail to provide figures, the author does not hesitate to offer estimates of her own. One example:[120]

The figure of 150 work-fit Jews who were imprisoned on December 12, 1941, is proven by a memo issued by a German official on December 23 of that year, in other words with an actual document. Regarding the transport of January 5 the author states that it is "known" to have included several hundred persons, but she neglects to tell us the source from which this is known. Her "assumption" that each of the nine transports included at least 200 people is also not documented. (After all, it goes without saying that the murder of entire transports immediately upon arrival can only be 'proven' by eyewitness testimony.)

The following concrete example clearly reveals the utterly unfounded nature of Z. Leszczyńska's postulated figures:

The author claims that between January and August 1943 the Lublin camp took in 115,000 prisoners (52,700 in the first four-month period and another 62,300 in the second). However, from the September 30, 1943, report of WVHA Chief Oswald Pohl to the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, in which camp population and mortality figures in the various concentration camps are discussed,[121] the following becomes apparent:

1. In the time in question, the total number of inmates in all the concentration camps rose from 123,000 to 224,000, i.e., by 101,000.

2. In the same time period, 62,700 inmates died in all concentration camps together.

If all those who died had been interned before January 1, 1943, it would mean that 163,700 inmates had been newly admitted to the camps in the eight-month period at issue. Naturally, however, part of the deaths must have involved new arrivals, i.e., inmates who had not been imprisoned prior to 1943. Thus, the total of all inmates imprisoned between January and August 1943 must have been significantly less than 163,700.

Of the new arrivals in the first eight months of 1943, no less than 97,850 were sent to Auschwitz.[122] Consequently, all the other camps put together took in significantly fewer than (163,700-97,850=) 65,850 deportees, and again, only a part of these can have been sent to Majdanek. Therefore, Z. Leszczyńska's statistic is exaggerated by several orders of magnitude!

The fact that the author, drawing on highly questionable sources, inflates the number of deportees so extremely is not difficult to explain in light of the political constraints within she had to work. At the time she wrote her analysis, the figure of 360,000 Majdanek victims was a dogma which it was anathema to question. Now, if 360,000 inmates died in Majdanek while 45,000 were transferred to other camps, 20,000 were released by the Germans and 1,500 were liberated by the Red Army, then simple mathematics would require that Lublin camp took in a total of 426,500 inmates. Despite her best efforts, Z. Leszczyńska can only come up with 246,900, and so she conjures up the missing 179,600 by commenting that her figure is by no means complete!

In her publication on the same subject authored 22 years later, Z. Leszczyńska now counts all of 827 transports (up from her previous 694) which now included "at least 275,000" people, and adds this time, as well, that the actual figure was much higher.[123]

This study may be found in the voluminous anthology Majdanek 1941-1944, published in 1991 by T. Mencel. This book contains an index of 816 transports that arrived in Majdanek.[124] Only 414 of these entries give the number of inmates on the transport at issue. If one adds the numbers given for these 414 transports, one arrives at a total of only 81,500 prisoners.

Summarizing the data given in the Polish literature on this subject (as of 1991) produces the following bottom line:

• 47,890 inmates of Majdanek are known by name;

• 414 transports with a total of 81,500 inmates have been established.

All other figures beyond these are undocumented and thus merely estimates.

We shall submit our own estimates of the total number of inmates imprisoned in Majdanek in Chapter IV.

For her 1980 article about the inmates transferred from Majdanek to other camps, Z. Leszczyńska was able to draw much more extensively on actual documents than for her article on transports to Majdanek, since the arriving convoys were registered in the records of the receiving camp and these records have largely survived to our time. Accordingly, this article is also much sounder.

In 1943 inmates were transferred on the orders of the SS-WVHA's Group D. Initially, the camp administration of Majdanek itself selected the inmates to be transferred. Later the internees were given the chance to volunteer for transports to other camps. In general they did not like to leave, as they feared change and did not know what awaited them elsewhere.[125]

It is likely that most Polish prisoners did indeed regard a concentration camp in their own country as the lesser evil when compared to a camp abroad, especially since it was not very difficult for them to maintain some contact with their families and friends living in freedom.

However, non-Polish and particularly western European inmates will probably have been only too happy to volunteer for a transfer, since there was hardly a camp anywhere where conditions were as bad as in Majdanek. Accordingly, the anthology Majdanek 1941-1944 states (translated from the German-language abstract):[126]

As of May 1942 transports left for Auschwitz, where the inmates worked in the Buna rubber plants in Monowitz. In 1943 the number of prisoners transferred to the various concentration camps in the Reich increased sharply, because there was little industry in Lublin and the ordnance factories in the Reich depended to an increasing extent on imported manpower. Other inmates from Majdanek were sent to smaller camps in the General Government or posted to work in agricultural enterprises.

In total-according to Z. Leszczyńska-the transports leaving Majdanek included some 45,000 prisoners.[127] We see no reason to doubt this figure, especially since there is no apparent motive for deliberate exaggeration here.[128]

The camp population-that is, the number of inmates detained there during the various periods of Majdanek's camp history-is the subject of another study by Z. Leszczyńska, this one dating from 1973.[129] Her conclusions are summarized in a table inserted between pages 16 and 17 of her article.[130] This table indicates that the camp population reached its high point in July 1943, with an average of 22,500 inmates.

A total of 207 document fragments survive from the camp register for 1943 and give important clues as to the level of the camp population at the times in question. The Polish historian comments as follows on these fragments, which form the cornerstone of her work:[131]

As strange as all this may sound, there can be no doubt about the authenticity of these documents!

A camp population report included the following information, inter alia:

• The number of inmates at morning roll call;

• Arrivals (i.e., inmates newly arrived in the course of the day);

• Departures through transfer, discharge and death;

• Number of inmates in the evening.

The inmates were divided into Reich Germans (RD), Poles, and citizens of the Soviet Union, and for the Reich Germans the inmate category (politicals, criminals, anti-socials etc.) was also specified. Oddly, non-Jewish members of other nations were included with the Reich Germans, and for some reason the Ukrainians were listed separately as of May 1943. The Jews were a special category, but were listed separately as per their citizenship. For example, the breakdown of the Jews in the camp on July 22, 1943, was as follows:[132]

Further data referred to the work to which the inmates were put.

We shall show one of these camp population reports.[133] It is actually one of the most complete-which gives an indication of the difficulties a researcher is faced with here.

The document in question dates from December 9, 1943. According to it, there were a total of 6,847 inmates in Majdanek that evening, including 2,248 (Soviet) prisoners of war, 4,466 concentration camp inmates and 126 members of a different category (we do not know which one, since the pertinent line is only partly legible). In the (also only partly legible) left-hand column second from the top, below the 4,466 concentration camp inmates, "SU. Kr.-Gef." (Soviet POW) are mentioned; evidently these were counted separately from the remaining Russian POWs, and again we do not know what group this was.

Of the 4,466 camp inmates, 2,052 were in the protective detention camp and 824 were employed in a total of 32 work details (which probably also included the satellite camps of Majdanek). 537 were not assigned to work, and no fewer than 1,053 were in the infirmary!

Further, the fragment shows that three men-one Soviet POW and two Polish inmates in protective detention-died that day and that one Polish inmate as well as three Polish hostages were released.

Such German documents, representing meaningful evidence despite their incompleteness, are quite rare for the reasons previously mentioned, and so Z. Leszczyńska, in her article about the camp population levels, perforce refers primarily to reports issued by the Resistance movement, to messages smuggled out of the camp during the time of its existence, and to post-liberation witness statements. Where actual documents exist, a comparison with the estimates quoted shows that the latter somewhat exceed the realistic figures.

For August 1943, for example, Z. Leszczyńska speaks of an average of 11,700 male and 6,500 female inmates.[134] According to Pohl's report to Himmler, which we have already mentioned repeatedly, the number of inmates at that time was about 11,500 men and 3,900 women.[135] So, while the estimate is extraordinarily accurate for the men, there is a considerable difference for the women.

Finally, a word regarding the number of the inmates. According to Polish historiography, the numbers assigned to the registered inmates in Majdanek did not exceed 20,000. If an inmate died, his number was allegedly assigned to another inmate.[136]

As odd as this system may sound (nothing of the sort was done in any other German concentration camp), it is nonetheless a fact that not one inmate number greater than 20,000 is recorded in the surviving documents.

However, on the basis of 1,250 names given in the various lists of inmates who died in 1942, we found only five numbers that were used twice.[137] One should have expected a much greater number of identifiers that were assigned twice or even more often. This is one of the most significant unsolved problems in the context of the history of Majdanek.

Notes