SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE VARIA MAGAZINE ON THE 80TH JUBILEE OF THE STATE MUSEUM AT MAJDANEK
State Museum at Majdanek
Ever since then the State Museum at Majdanek has been ceaselessly cultivating the memory of the prisoners that were detained at the camp. It is done through a diverse activity in the fields of exhibitions, education, research, and through our everyday care exerted over the tangible remnants of the camp. Today it is Europe’s only institution that encompasses three memorials located on the former German death camp sites.
On our 80th jubilee, we want to look into the past, analyse our previous endeavours, to recall the Museum’s difficult beginnings affected by the wartime and post-wartime tides. We also wish to share our plans for the future. That is why the latest issue of our Varia magazine includes topics that tackle the Museum’s heritage, its history, internal changes held throughout its functioning, challenges we have faced, as well as the projects that we are planning for the forthcoming years.
In October 1944, just three months after the liquidation of the Majdanek German Nazi concentration camp, a Museum was established on its former grounds. It was the world’s first Memorial dedicated to the victims of World War II.
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Table of contents:
Anna Wójcik
“Embarking on the Endeavour of Utmost Political Importance for the Reviving Polish State and the World Entire” – Creation of the State Museum at Majdanek
State Museum at Majdanek – Then and Now: Interview with Tomasz Kranz, the Director of the State Museum at Majdanek by Aleksandra Skrabek
Wojciech Lenarczyk
Historical Research in the State Museum at Majdanek,
On the Educational Activities of the State Museum at Majdanek Interview with Wiesław Wysok, the Museum Deputy Director by Nadia Sola-Sałamacha
Aleksandra Skrabek
From Forgotten Extermination Sites to Restoring the Memory of the Holocaust. Museums in Bełżec and Sobibór
On Preserving and Securing the Camp Remnants Interview with Grzegorz Plewik, the Museum Deputy Director by Agnieszka Kowalczyk-Nowak
Marta Grudzińska
Victims’ Voices. “Stories of Personal Experience” Employed in the Museum Activities