Majdanek concentration camp (June 24, 1944) from the collections of the Majdanek Museum, lower half: the barracks under deconstruction; in the upper half, functioning barracks
Preserved original ovens in the second Crematorium at Majdanek, built in 1943 by Heinrich Kori.[1]
Original gas chamber with visible Zyklon B blue stain on the back wall, permanently burned into the cement
The Majdanek trials were a series of consecutive war-crime trials held in Poland and in Germany during and after World War II, constituting the overall longest Nazi war crimes trial in history spanning over 30 years.[2] The first judicial trial of Majdanek extermination camp officials took place from November 27, 1944, to December 2, 1944, in Lublin, Poland.[3][4] The last one, held at the District Court of Düsseldorf began on November 26, 1975, and concluded on June 30, 1981. It was West Germany's longest and most expensive trial, lasting 474 sessions.[5][6]
A number of former high ranking SS men, camp officials, camp guards, and SS staff were arraigned before the courts on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at Majdanek in the period between October 1, 1941, and July 22, 1944. Notably, only 170 Nazis who served at Majdanek had been prosecuted at all, of the 1,037 camp personnel known by name. Half of the defendants charged by the West German justice system were acquitted of killing. By contrast, those tried earlier by Poland were usually found guilty. During the 34 months of camp operation, more than 79,000 people were murdered at Majdanek main camp alone (59,000 of them Polish Jews) and between 95,000 and 130,000 people in the entire Majdanek, system including several subcamps.[7] Some 18,000 Jews were killed at Majdanek on November 3, 1943, during the largest single-day, single-camp massacre of the Holocaust,[6] named Harvest Festival (totalling 43,000 with 2 subcamps).[8]
Notably, two KL Majdanek concentration camp commandants were put on trial by the SS themselves in the course of the camp operation partly because of what Majdanek was initially, merely a storage depot for gold, money and furs stolen from trainloads of Holocaust victims at murder factories in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.[9] Both SS men were charged with wholesale stealing from the Third Reich to become rich. Karl-Otto Koch (serving at Majdanek from July 1941 till August 24, 1942) was executed by firing squad on April 5, 1945; Hermann Florstedt, the third chief of Majdanek (from October 1942 on) was executed by the SS on April 15, 1945.[10]
First Majdanek trial
Retreating Germans did not have time to destroy the facility. It remained the best preserved example of a Holocaustdeath camp in history, with intact gas chambers and crematoria.[11] The advancing Soviets were the first Allied soldiers to see the gas chambers, and initially overestimated the total number of victims.[12]
A group of six members of Majdanek personnel – who had not managed to escape – were arraigned before the Soviet-Polish Special Criminal Court immediately following the camp's liberation of July 23, 1944. They were SS-ObersturmführerAnton Thernes, SS-HauptsturmführerWilhelm Gerstenmeier, SS-OberscharführerHermann Vögel, Kapo Edmund Pohlmann, SS-RottenführerTheodor Schöllen and Kapo Heinrich Stalp. After the trial, and deliberations, which lasted from November 27, 1944 to December 2, 1944, all of accused, except for Pohlmann, who had committed suicide on November 28, were found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.[6][11][13] They were all hanged on December 3, 1944.[14]
Second Majdanek trial (1946–1948)
The series of trials which took place between 1946 and 1948 in Poland – usually referred to as the Second trial of Majdanek – consisted of trials of many kinds. Some 95 SS-men, mostly guards (including those apprehended hiding in postwar Germany), were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Seven of the defendants were given the death penalty. The most prominent of them was Elsa Ehrich, Oberaufseherin of the women and children camp division (liquidated in spring of 1944). She was responsible for the selections to gas chambers. Ehrich was found guilty of all charges, and hanged in July 1948. Apparently, Ehrich made an attempt to launch a Nazi brothel in 1943, but the project was abandoned before fruition after one of her slave sex-workers was diagnosed with typhus.[15]
Most other SS men were sentenced from 2 to 12 years' imprisonment.[16] Some of the more prominent defendants in the 1946–1948 series of trials included over 60 SS-Schütze camp guards. The multiple proceedings were held in Lublin, as well as in Radom and Świdnica (1947), Kraków, Wadowice, and Toruń (1948) and in Warsaw (1948), where the last appellate court case of Jacob Gemmel took place in November 1950.[10]
6 years imprisonment (died in prison, Apr. 16, 1951)
Franz Vormittag
Jan. 23, 1920
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
6 years imprisonment
Helmut Zach
Aug. 19, 1909
SS-Unterscharf.
Camp guard
6 years imprisonment
Jacob Dialler
Dec. 8, 1913
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (released Dec. 23, 1951)
Hans Durst
Nov. 23, 1909
SS-Rottenf.
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Franz Kaufmann
Jul. 23, 1908
SS-Unterscharf.
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Paul Kiss
Jul. 13, 1902
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (died Apr. 26, 1950)
Johann Kubasak
Dec. 31, 1909
SS-Rottenf.
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Johann Lassner
Jul. 26, 1909
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Johann Lienert
Aug. 5, 1915
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (died Jun. 16, 1949)
Stefan Mantsch
Sept. 24, 1922
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (released Apr. 12, 1951)
Hans Merle
May 15, 1914
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (released Jan. 2, 1953)
Kurt Erwin Ohnweiler
Mar. 25, 1913
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment (released Mar. 1, 1952)
Michael Thal
Jan. 16, 1910
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Jacob Vormittag
Mar. 8, 1909
SS-Sturmman
Camp guard
5 years imprisonment
Martin Berger
Jan. 18, 1910
SS-Rottenf.
Camp guard
4 years imprisonment (died in prison, Oct. 15, 1948)
Michael Fleischer
Aug. 18, 1912
SS-Rottenf.
Camp guard
4 years imprisonment
Franz Habel
May 31, 1912
SS-Rottenf.
Camp guard
4 years imprisonment
Karl Brückner
May 5, 1904
SS-Unterscharf.
Camp guard
4 years imprisonment (released Feb. 28, 1951)
Josef Janowitsch
Aug. 22, 1910
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
4 years imprisonment
Johann Günesch
May 17, 1913
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
3.5 years imprisonment (extradited to Germany, Feb. 9, 1951)
Fritz Frischolz
Oct. 5, 1911
SS-Oberscharf.
Camp guard
8 years imprisonment (released Mar. 10, 1955)
Michael Gall
Jul. 22, 1902
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
3 years imprisonment (extradited to Germany, Jan. 15, 1951)
Hans Grabert
May 31, 1907
SS-Oberscharf
Administration
3 years imprisonment (extradited to Germany, Jun. 16, 1950)
Stefan Mantsch
Sept. 24, 1922
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
3 years imprisonment (released Apr. 12, 1951)
Josef Moos
Jan. 24, 1904
SS-Rottenf.
Infirmary (selections)
3 years imprisonment (died in prison, Apr. 20, 1950)
Konrad Anacker
Feb. 13, 1892
SS-Schütze
Camp guard
3 years imprisonment (released Jun. 26, 1950)
Wilhelm Reinartz
Mar. 17, 1910
SS-Unterscharf.
Infirmary
2 years imprisonment
Wilhelm Petrak
Feb. 14, 1909
SS-Sturmmann
Camp guard
8 years (died Jul. 28, 1948 of disease after 2 years)
Third Majdanek trial (1975–1981)
At the Third Majdanek Trial, held between November 26, 1975, and June 30, 1981, before a West German Court at Düsseldorf, sixteen defendants were arraigned. Five were cleared of all charges, two released due to ill health, one died of old age, and eight were found guilty. They were sentenced to 3 to 12 years imprisonment.[17] The 3rd Majdanek trial was preceded by the Treblinka Trials also at Düsseldorf in 1964 and 1970.[18] The Majdanek trial lasted for six years, and concluded on June 30, 1981. There were insufficient grounds to lay charges against other suspects according to the prosecution (many of the key witnesses having died).[5][19]
Notably, the camp deputy commandant, Arnold Strippel, implicated in the torture and killing of many dozens of prisoners (including 42 Soviet POWs in July 1942), received a nominal 3+1⁄2-year sentence. He also received 121,500-Deutsche Mark reimbursement for the loss of earnings and his social security contributions, which he used to purchase a condominium in Frankfurt, which he occupied until his death.[20]
In 1988, Karl-Friedrich Höcker was called to trial for ordering the Zyklon B used in Majdanek's gas chambers. He was sentenced to four years in prison in May 1989.[21]
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