Red Army discovers Majdanek camp

On 22 July 1944, Soviet troops reached the Polish city of Lublin. Here, they discovered the Majdanek labour and extermination camp, which was situated close to the city. The guards had already left.

The Nazis had tried to erase their traces. Barracks had been demolished, bodies of murdered people had been burned, and the camp archives had been destroyed. But many barracks were still standing, and the gas chambers and some crematoria were still intact. Many prisoners had been left behind.

Around 78,000 people were murdered in the camp, 59,000 of whom were Jews.

It was the first concentration camp the Allies discovered. The Russians invited journalists to the camp. A month later, newspapers were writing about the evidence of the mass murder by the Nazis for the first time.