CONSERVATOR’S RENOVATION
OF BATH BARRACKS
AND GAS CHAMBERS
The activity of German concentration camp in Lublin was inaugurated in the autumn of 1941 by the incarceration of Soviet POWs. The inmates would erect the buildings in which they were accommodated themselves and the number of sanitary units was insufficient. Initially, compulsory disinfection would take place in timber barrels filled with water with lysol. The construction of barracks, which according to the designs from July 1942 are called delousing facilities, and only a few months later barracks, finished in the second half of the year 1942. Barrack number 41 served the function of a men’s bath, and number 42 of women’s facility. The buildings included among others a changing and hairdressing room, a space with showers and disinfection chambers. In barrack 41, disinfection was carried out with the use of Zyklon B, while in barrack 42 hot air was applied. Due to big quantities of clothes for disinfection, it was decided in August 1942 to erect another facility, the design of which was modified within the execution stage and the gas chambers were supposed to serve not only disinfection, but also extermination purposes.
The facility was erected at the back of barrack number 41. The chamber adapted to the use of Zyklon B was divided into two smaller units in order to additionally enable the application of carbon oxide in one of them. It was performed via the system of pipes installed right above the flooring and a trained SS officer used to let the gas inside. Soon after, one more chamber was added to the existing ones on their left side. It was a so called big chamber adapted exclusively to the use of carbon oxide. The chambers were closed with heavy metal doors with a sight glass making it possible to look inside. Jewish men and women classified according to SS criteria as unable to work were mainly murdered in the gas chambers. Until late spring 1943, selected ill men from the camp hospital of various nationalities, mainly Polish, were also exterminated there.
The renovation of barrack number 42 was divided into two stages. The first of them (from July until December 2014) covered the structure of the facility, while the second (from August to December 2016) was devoted to conservation works. When it comes to barrack number 41, both construction as well as conservation works were carried out simultaneously from February 2019 to October 2020. Timber barrack components were demounted, the cavities filled, reinforced and impregnated. New foundations were laid in barrack number 42, while the foundations in barrack number 41, previously reinforced in the 1960s, were fixed and insulated. Timber sill plates and tar roof covering were replaced in both facilities. Plasters and floors in the barracks and the gas chamber facility were cleaned and disinfected, crack edges and breaking off components were stuck and filled fragments were marked by lowering the surface with reference to the original. Timber window
Major conservator’s renovation of one of the most important monuments connected with the history of German concentration camp at Majdanek, men’s bath barrack (number 41) together with adjacent bunker with gas chambers, came to its end. The baths are among the preserved facilities serving the purpose of mass extermination of prisoners within the framework of the “Reinhardt” action. At the same time, for the first time in history, State Museum at Majdanek opened for visitors the interior of women’s bath barrack (number 42), where conservation works were performed in previous years.
Anna Alberska, Majdanek Memorial