The State Museum at Majdanek is the oldest museum institution in Europe commemorating the victims of World War II. It was established in the autumn of 1944 in the former German concentration camp, colloquially known as Majdanek.
In the Museum covering 90 ha, there are approximately 70 historical buildings. Among them, the places directly related to the mass extermination of people are particularly important: the gas chambers, the crematorium and execution ditches in which about 18,000 Jews were shot. One of the five prisoner fields and part of administration and utility buildings have been also preserved. In barrack No. 62 the multimedia exhibition Prisoners of Majdanek is located.
The Museum's mission is to cultivate memory and develop historical education about German occupation in the Lublin region during World War II, in particular by commemorating the victims, protecting facilities and documenting the history of the Majdanek concentration camp and extermination camps in Bełżec and Sobibór.
