On June 6 we opened our new outdoor exhibition in Przemyśl. It is devoted to operation "Reinhardt". On the 80th anniversary of this mass murder programme we want to describe the historical framework of those tragic events by presenting the exhibition in several cities of Poland. Each and every of them was marked with deportations and human suffering of those persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II.

The international academic conference “The Infrastructure of Aktion ‘Reinhardt’. Places, Sources, Research Postulates” organised by the State Museum at Majdanek concluded yesterday. Among the participants there were historians and researchers from numerous institutions and scholarly centres concerned with the history of the Holocaust and World War II.

The participants' task was to create an artwork using any technique, referring to a selected fragment of an account of deportations to the Bełżec extermination camp. The accounts were available on the website of the Museum and Memorial Site in Bełżec. Around 100 young artists from several provinces took part in the competition.

The deadline for submitting works for the competition "Deportations to the Bełżec extermination camp" had passed on 13 May.

The European commemoration of the International Museum Day includes the #ProtectTheFacts campaign organised by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the United Nations, UNESCO, and the European Commission.

This year, the Museum and Memorial Site in Bełżec began observing the International Museum Day on May 14th-15th. On Saturday and Sunday, free guided tours through the grounds of the former death camp in Bełżec and the museum exhibition were organized.

Last weekend was marked with another edition of the "Night of Museums." This year, the events organised as a part of the nationwide campaign which aims at promoting cultural institutions were held both at the State Museum at Majdanek and at its branches in Bełżec and Sobibór. Over the weekend, nearly 1,500 people participated in our events.

This week, a seminar organised at the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór came to an end. The meeting of representatives of many museums and cultural institutions from all across Poland was an excellent opportunity to share experiences on extracurricular historical education and activities promoting various aspects of history. The event was held as part of the 80th anniversary of operation “Reinhardt” organised by the State Museum at Majdanek.

As a part of a social and educational campaign “Daffodils 2022” was organized a meeting with Tomasz Hanejko, the head of Museum and Memorial Site in Belzec. The participants of the event took part in the opening of an exhibition and a lecture about history of the German death camp in Belzec, where Jews from Lubaczów were murdered too.

On April 26, 2022 took place a socio-educational campaign “Daffodils 2022” for the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The project was completed by cooperation Pedagogical Library in Tomaszów Lubelski, High School No. 1 in Tomaszów Lubelski and Museum and Memorial Site in Belzec.

What are the current challenges faced by educators working at memorial sites? What goals should the museum employees pursue while working with the visitors? These are merely two out of many questions asked during this week’s training session from the “Museum in Action” series organised in the education and research facility of the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec.

On April 19, we celebrated Holocaust Remembrance Day and Day for the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity, which was established to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

On April 11, 2022, the third meeting of the present Board of the State Museum at Majdanek took place. The session was held at the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.

On the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the very first transport of Jews from the Podzamcze ghetto in Lublin to the death camp in Bełżec, which initiated the mass extermination programme implemented by the Third Reich under the codename “Einsatz Reinhardt,” we met in the Collegium Iuridicum of the Catholic University of Lublin to restore the memory of those events in the form of a panel discussion.

The first transports of Jewish deportees from the Lublin and Lwów ghettos arrived at the Bełżec extermination camp in Bełżec 80 years ago. These events marked the beginning of operation “Reinhardt.” Within its course the Germans murdered approx. 2,000,000 Jews between the March 1942 and November 1943. We commemorated all the victims of that mass extermination programme during a ceremony held in the Museum and Memorial in Bełżec on March 15.

On night of 16 to 17 March, 1942, the functionaries of the Sicherheitspolizei [German security police] commanded by Hermann Worthoff entered the Podzamcze ghetto in Lublin. From there, they would send 1,000 Jews every following day, cramped inside the freight cars they were sent to the extermination camp in Bełżec.

The panel discussion organised by the State Museum at Majdanek, entitled “Einsatz Reinhardt” in the context of the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Roles and consequences, is going to feature the leading historians specialising in the subject of the Holocaust. The debate is going take place in Collegium Iuridicum of the Catholic University of Lublin, situated at Spokojna 1 Street in Lublin. The event starts at 5 p.m. on March 17.

The Institute of National Remembrance and the State Museum at Majdanek wish to invite everyone for a ceremony held in recognition of the 80th anniversary of the first deportations of Jews to the German extermination camp in Bełżec.

We present the new issue of the “Varia” magazine. The contents include historical outlines, archival photographs, and unique documents pertaining to the mass extermination of Jews in the General Government conducted by the Third Reich in the years 1942-1943 under the codename “Einsatz Reinhardt.”

On the night of 16–17 March, 1942, the German police functionaries initiated the deportations from the ghetto in Lublin. Around 1,000 Jews, entirely oblivious of their fate, were herded into freight cars and sent to the death camp in Bełżec every day. The annihilation of Lublin’s Jewish community was the first step of the enormous extermination programme codenamed “Einsatz Reinhardt.”

CALL FOR PAPERS || We invite historians, scholars, regionalist researches, and students to participate in the academic conference “The infrastructure of operation ‘Reinhardt.’ Sites, sources, research postulates” which will be held in Lublin on May 23-25, 2022.

In 2005, the UN General Assembly established January 27th as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date refers to the day of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp liberation in 1945 and is an opportunity to commemorate Jewish victims who were murdered by Nazi Germany during World War II.

The Museum and Memorial in Bełżec received constant interest from visitors in 2021. Among them there were students from primary and secondary schools, residents of various regions of Poland, as well as some guests from abroad.

We invite you to read the latest issue of this year's Varia magazine. It is published in the Polish-English language version.