Historical debates, conferences, educational seminars, film projects, and exhibitions –events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the operation “Reinhardt” were at the centre of activities held by the State Museum at Majdanek in 2022.

In order to commemorate almost 2,000,000 Jewish victims exterminated in this murderous operation between 1942 and 1943, the Museum organised, among other projects, an outdoor exhibition displayed in Przemyśl, Warsaw, Kielce, and Białystok. Five debates that are also available online, and a documentary film produced by the staff of the State Museum at Majdanek: “The Traces of Operation ‘Reinhardt’ in Lublin” informed the wide audience about the events that took place 80 years ago. For specialists, the Museum prepared the educational seminar “From memory of places to the pedagogy of remembrance” and the Polish nationwide academic conference “The Infrastructure of Operation ‘Reinhardt’. Places, Sources, Research Postulates”.

Traditionally, the Museum’s activities have largely focused on education. In 2022, the institution held 329 educational projects with the total of 8,313 participants from Poland and other countries. Schoolchildren, adults, persons with disabilities and those at the risk of social exclusion were able to discover the history of the Majdanek, Bełżec, and Sobibór camps. They attended museum lessons, participatory workshops, and online classes. The Museum repeatedly hosted teachers, educators, and tour guides during methodological seminars and study visits concerning alternative education methods used in memorial sites.

Numerous publications prepared by the Museum were the fruit of intensive research and editorial work. The most important one – a new monograph concerning the Majdanek concentration camp entitled “The Prisoners of KL Lublin 1941-1944” was edited by Tomasz Kranz and Wojciech Lenarczyk. It offers a new perspective and sheds a new light on many issues concerning the origin of the camp and its functions, as well as its role as a tool in the German occupation policy. In 2022, the Museum established cooperation with the publishing house Prószyński i S-ka, which resulted in new editions of one of the most important reminiscences of the former Majdanek prisoners Stefania Perzanowska and Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk. Other new books released by the Museum include “The Architecture of the Nazi Death Camps in Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka” - a monograph of the German art historian Annika Wienert, published in Polish for the first time; a photo album “Majdanek from Dawn to Dusk” consisting of 42 photographs taken by Krzysztof Stanek, the employee of the State Museum at Majdanek; and three issues of the Museum’s online magazine “Varia”.

As a result of conservation works, the Museum renovated five former camp buildings, as well as 1,246 items from the museum collections. Our Archival sources was enriched by 73 new documents. In 2022, the Museum was visited by 150,843 visitors from 77 countries, including the State Museum at Majdanek in Lublin with 96,224 visitors, the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór with 20,031 visitors, and the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec with 34,588 visitors. The content we published on the Internet reached 5,526,413 users. The campaign #KobietyMajdanka / #WomenofMajdanek launched in our social media on the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the women's concentration camp at Majdanek was particularly successful, as it reached over one million recipients.

In order to commemorate almost 2,000,000 Jewish victims exterminated in this murderous operation between 1942 and 1943, the Museum organised, among other projects, an outdoor exhibition displayed in Przemyśl, Warsaw, Kielce, and Białystok. Five debates that are also available online, and a documentary film produced by the staff of the State Museum at Majdanek: “The Traces of Operation ‘Reinhardt’ in Lublin” informed the wide audience about the events that took place 80 years ago. For specialists, the Museum prepared the educational seminar “From memory of places to the pedagogy of remembrance” and the Polish nationwide academic conference “The Infrastructure of Operation ‘Reinhardt’. Places, Sources, Research Postulates”.

Traditionally, the Museum’s activities have largely focused on education. In 2022, the institution held 329 educational projects with the total of 8,313 participants from Poland and other countries. Schoolchildren, adults, persons with disabilities and those at the risk of social exclusion were able to discover the history of the Majdanek, Bełżec, and Sobibór camps. They attended museum lessons, participatory workshops, and online classes. The Museum repeatedly hosted teachers, educators, and tour guides during methodological seminars and study visits concerning alternative education methods used in memorial sites.

Numerous publications prepared by the Museum were the fruit of intensive research and editorial work. The most important one – a new monograph concerning the Majdanek concentration camp entitled “The Prisoners of KL Lublin 1941-1944” was edited by Tomasz Kranz and Wojciech Lenarczyk. It offers a new perspective and sheds a new light on many issues concerning the origin of the camp and its functions, as well as its role as a tool in the German occupation policy. In 2022, the Museum established cooperation with the publishing house Prószyński i S-ka, which resulted in new editions of one of the most important reminiscences of the former Majdanek prisoners Stefania Perzanowska and Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk. Other new books released by the Museum include “The Architecture of the Nazi Death Camps in Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka” - a monograph of the German art historian Annika Wienert, published in Polish for the first time; a photo album “Majdanek from Dawn to Dusk” consisting of 42 photographs taken by Krzysztof Stanek, the employee of the State Museum at Majdanek; and three issues of the Museum’s online magazine “Varia”.

As a result of conservation works, the Museum renovated five former camp buildings, as well as 1,246 items from the museum collections. Our Archival sources was enriched by 73 new documents. In 2022, the Museum was visited by 150,843 visitors from 77 countries, including the State Museum at Majdanek in Lublin with 96,224 visitors, the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór with 20,031 visitors, and the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec with 34,588 visitors. The content we published on the Internet reached 5,526,413 users. The campaign #KobietyMajdanka / #WomenofMajdanek launched in our social media on the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the women's concentration camp at Majdanek was particularly successful, as it reached over one million recipients.