Misplaced Pages

#444555

126-401: 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

252-477: A personal union with Imperial Russia . The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816. With the violation of the Polish constitution , the 1830 November Uprising broke out against foreign influence. The Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the uprising's defeat and in the curtailment of Congress Poland's autonomy. On 27 February 1861, a Warsaw crowd protesting against Russian control over Congress Poland

378-760: A condominium in Frankfurt, which he occupied until his death. 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. [REDACTED] Media related to KZ Majdanek at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Media related to Majdanek concentration camp at Wikimedia Commons Majdanek 51°13′14″N 22°35′58″E  /  51.22056°N 22.59944°E  / 51.22056; 22.59944 Majdanek (or Lublin )

504-525: A different pattern of geomorphological forms. There are several levels of the Vistula plain terraces (flooded as well as formerly flooded), and only a small part is a not-so-visible moraine escarpment. Aeolian sand with a number of dunes parted by peat swamps or small ponds cover the highest terrace. These are mainly forested areas ( pine forest ). Warsaw experiences an oceanic ( Köppen : Cfb) or humid continental ( Köppen : Dfb) climate, depending on

630-747: A district court in the German city of Bielefeld sentenced Höcker to four years imprisonment for his involvement in gassing to death prisoners, primarily Polish Jews, in the concentration camp Majdanek in Poland. Camp records showed that between May 1943 and May 1944 Höcker had acquired at least 3,610 kilograms (7,960 lb) of Zyklon B poisonous gas for use in Majdanek from the Hamburg firm of Tesch & Stabenow . In addition, Commandant Rudolf Höss of Auschwitz wrote in his memoirs, while awaiting trial in Poland, that one method of murder used at Majdanek (KZ Lublin)

756-720: A great inspiration from the Roman period. The best-known architect who worked in Warsaw at the time was Domenico Merlini , who designed the Palace on the Isle . Other significant buildings from this period include Królikarnia , Holy Trinity Church , St. Anne's Church, Warsaw . Also in the first half of the 19th century, neoclassicism dominated the architecture of Warsaw. Old buildings were rebuilt and new ones were built in this style. The neoclassical revival affected all aspects of architecture;

882-399: A height 75.6 m (248 ft) (at the right bank of the Vistula, by the eastern border of Warsaw). There are some hills (mostly artificial) located within the confines of the city – e.g. Warsaw Uprising Hill (121 m (397 ft)) and Szczęśliwice hill (138 m (453 ft) – the highest point of Warsaw in general). Warsaw is located on two main geomorphologic formations:

1008-409: A million others [were] killed" and "You can tell America that at least three million [Polish] Jews [were] killed of whom at least a third were killed in Majdanek", and though widely reported in this way, the estimate was never taken seriously by scholars. In 1961, Raul Hilberg estimated that 50,000 Jewish victims were murdered in the camp. In 1992, Czesław Rajca gave his own estimate of 235,000; it

1134-424: A more westward position. In 1945, after the bombings, revolts, fighting, and demolition had ended, most of Warsaw lay in ruins. The area of the former ghetto was razed to the ground, with only a sea of rubble remaining. The immense destruction prompted a temporary transfer of the new government and its officials to Łódź , which became the transitional seat of power. Nevertheless, Warsaw officially resumed its role as

1260-476: A noticeable mark on its architecture and urban form. Unlike most Polish cities, Warsaw's cityscape is mostly contemporary – modern glass buildings are towering above older historical edifices which is a common feature of North American metropolises. Warsaw is among the European cities with the highest number of skyscrapers and is home to European Union's tallest building . Skyscrapers are mostly centered around

1386-895: A rule applied by the West German justice system allowing only those directly involved in the process to be charged with murder. After the capture of the camp by the Soviet Army, the NKVD retained the ready-made facility as a prison for soldiers of the Armia Krajowa (AK, the Home Army resistance) loyal to the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Narodowe Siły Zbrojne ( National Armed Forces ) opposed to both German and Soviet occupation. The NKVD like

SECTION 10

#1732780246445

1512-590: A small fishing village called "Warszowa". The Prince of Płock , Bolesław II of Masovia, established the modern-day city in about 1300 and the first historical document attesting to the existence of a castellany dates to 1313. With the completion of St John's Cathedral in 1390, Warsaw became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia and was officially made capital of the Masovian Duchy in 1413. The economy then predominantly rested on craftsmanship or trade, and

1638-614: A special Polish-Soviet commission, to investigate and document the crimes against humanity committed at Majdanek. This effort constitutes one of the first attempts to document the Nazi war crimes in Eastern Europe. In the fall of 1944 the Majdanek State Museum was founded on the grounds of the Majdanek concentration camp. In 1947 the actual camp became the monument of martyrology by the decree of Polish Parliament . In

1764-679: A special exhibition displaying a selection of those letters. From February 1943 onward, the Germans allowed the Polish Red Cross and Central Welfare Council to bring in food items to the camp. Prisoners could receive food packages addressed to them by name via the Polish Red Cross. The Majdanek Museum archives document 10,300 such itemized deliveries. Until June 1942, the bodies of those murdered at Majdanek were buried in mass graves (these were later exhumed and burned by

1890-401: Is a green capital, with around a quarter of the city's area occupied by parks. In sports, the city is home to Legia Warsaw football club and hosts the annual Warsaw Marathon . Warsaw's name in the Polish language is Warszawa . Other previous spellings of the name may have included: Warszewa , Warszowa , Worszewa or Werszewa . The exact origin and meaning of the name

2016-708: Is a significant economic centre for the region, with the Warsaw Stock Exchange being the largest in Central and Eastern Europe . It is the base for Frontex , the European Union agency for external border security, and ODIHR , one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe . Warsaw has one of Europe's highest concentrations of skyscrapers , and

2142-587: Is classified as an alpha global city , a major cultural, political and economic hub, and the country's seat of government. It is also the capital of the Masovian Voivodeship . Warsaw traces its origins to a small fishing town in Masovia . The city rose to prominence in the late 16th century, when Sigismund III decided to move the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków . Warsaw served as

2268-462: Is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak , warszawianin (male), warszawianka (female), warszawiacy , and warszawianie (plural). The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were located in Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new fortified settlement was established on the site of

2394-624: Is no longer in existence today. In autumn of 1943, the first crematorium at Majdanek was replaced by the New Crematorium . It was a T-shaped wooden building with five ovens, fueled with coke and built by the Heinrich Kori GmbH of Berlin. The building was set on fire by the Germans on 22 July 1944 as they abandoned the camp on the day that the Red Army entered the outskirts of Lublin. The crematorium building which stands on

2520-535: Is one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in Europe. Although contemporary Warsaw is a fairly young city compared to other European capitals, it has numerous tourist attractions and architectural monuments dating back centuries. Apart from the Warsaw Old Town area, reconstructed after World War II, each borough has something to offer. Among the most notable landmarks of the Old Town are

2646-804: Is represented by the Metropolitan Office Building at Pilsudski Square and Varso tower, both by Norman Foster , Warsaw University Library (BUW) by Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski, featuring a garden on its roof and view of the Vistula River, Rondo 1 office building by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , Złota 44 residential skyscraper by Daniel Libeskind , Museum of the History of Polish Jews by Rainer Mahlamäki and Golden Terraces , consisting of seven overlapping domes retail and business centre. Jointly with Moscow, Istanbul, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Rotterdam, Warsaw

SECTION 20

#1732780246445

2772-483: Is represented in the majestic churches but also at the burgher houses and fortifications. The most significant buildings are St John's Cathedral (1390), a typical example of the so-called Masovian Brick Gothic style; St Mary's Church (1411); the Burbach townhouse (14th century); Gunpowder Tower (after 1379); and Royal Castle 's Curia Maior (1407–1410). The most notable examples of Renaissance architecture in

2898-454: Is uncertain and has not been fully determined. Originally, Warszawa was the name of a small fishing settlement on the banks of the Vistula river. One hypothesis states that Warszawa means "belonging to Warsz", Warsz being a shortened form of the masculine Old Polish name Warcisław, which etymologically is linked with Wrocław . However the ending -awa is unusual for a large city;

3024-532: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . The amount means a tenth of the Polish capital's population of 1.8 million — the second-largest single group of Ukrainian refugees. Warsaw lies in east-central Poland about 300 km (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains and about 260 km (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea , 523 km (325 mi) east of Berlin, Germany. The city straddles

3150-834: The Domestic Economy Bank , the directorate of the Polish State Railways , the Supreme Audit Office , and the campus of the Warsaw School of Economics . New districts were also established in Żoliborz , Ochota , and Mokotów , often designed around a central square with radiating streets ( Narutowicz Square , Wilson Square ). Examples of new large urban projects are the Staszic and Lubecki colonies in Ochota . Exceptional examples of

3276-647: The East End of London and London Docklands . Poorer religious and ethnic minorities, such as the Jews, settled in the crowded parts of northern Warsaw, in Muranów . The Imperial Census of 1897 recorded 626,000 people living in Warsaw, making it the third-largest city of the Empire after St. Petersburg and Moscow as well as the largest city in the region. Grand architectural complexes and structures were also erected in

3402-693: The General Government , a German Nazi colonial administration. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population – several hundred thousand, some 30% of the city – were herded into the Warsaw Ghetto . In July 1942, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began to be deported en masse to the Aktion Reinhard extermination camps, particularly Treblinka . The city would become

3528-663: The Majdanek State Museum is a Holocaust memorial museum and education centre devoted entirely to the memory of atrocities committed in the network of concentration, slave-labor, and extermination camps and sub-camps of KL Lublin. It houses a permanent collection of rare artifacts, archival photographs, and testimony. Konzentrationslager Lublin was established in October 1941 on the orders of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , forwarded to Odilo Globocnik soon after Himmler's visit to Lublin on 17–20 July 1941 in

3654-659: The Red Army was deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Nazis toward Warsaw. The Polish government-in-exile in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize control of Warsaw before the Red Army arrived. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Red Army was nearing the city, the Warsaw uprising began. The armed struggle, planned to last 48 hours, was partially successful, however, it went on for 63 days. Eventually,

3780-489: The River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 7th most-populous city in the European Union . The city area measures 517 km (200 sq mi) and comprises 18 districts , while the metropolitan area covers 6,100 km (2,355 sq mi). Warsaw

3906-674: The Royal Castle , Sigismund's Column , Market Square , and the Barbican . Further south is the so-called Royal Route , with many historical churches, Baroque and Classicist palaces, most notably the Presidential Palace , and the University of Warsaw campus. The former royal residence of King John III Sobieski at Wilanów is notable for its Baroque architecture and eloquent palatial garden. In many places in

Majdanek trials - Misplaced Pages Continue

4032-560: The Steyr-Daimler-Puch weapons/munitions factory. By mid-October 1942, the camp held 9,519 registered prisoners, of whom 7,468 (or 78.45%) were Jews, and another 1,884 (19.79%) were non-Jewish Poles. By August 1943, there were 16,206 prisoners in the main camp, of which 9,105 (56.18%) were Jews and 3,893 (24.02%) were non-Jewish Poles. Minority contingents included Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, Austrians, Slovenes, Italians, and French and Dutch nationals. According to

4158-592: 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. Retreating Germans did not have time to destroy the facility. It remained the best preserved example of a Holocaust death camp in history, with intact gas chambers and crematoria. The advancing Soviets were

4284-1007: The Varso Place is the tallest building in the European Union. The city's primary educational and cultural institutions comprise the University of Warsaw , the Warsaw University of Technology , the SGH Warsaw School of Economics , the Chopin University of Music , the Polish Academy of Sciences , the National Philharmonic Orchestra , the National Museum , and the Warsaw Grand Theatre ,

4410-550: The Vistula River. It is located in the heartland of the Masovian Plain , and its average elevation is 100 m (330 ft) above sea level. The highest point on the left side of the city lies at a height of 115.7 m (380 ft) ("Redutowa" bus depot, district of Wola), on the right side – 122.1 m (401 ft) ("Groszówka" estate, district of Wesoła, by the eastern border). The lowest point lies at

4536-739: The Vistula escarpment were constructed. In the architecture of Catholic churches, the Counter-Reformation type became a novelty, exemplified by the Church of St. Anthony of Padua , the Carmelite Church and the Holy Cross Church . Warsaw Baroque from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries was characterized by building facades with a predominance of vertical elements close to the wall and numerous ornaments . The most important architect working in Warsaw at that time

4662-516: The Wedel factory and the extensive Municipal Gasworks complex . In the architecture of the 1920s, national historicism and other historical forms were dominant. Art Deco forms also appeared, and towards the end of the decade, avant-garde functionalism emerged. The creation of urban plans for the capital of Poland can be traced back to 1916, when, after the retreat of the Russians from Warsaw and

4788-504: The bourgeois architecture of the later periods were not restored by the communist authorities after the war or were remodelled into a socialist realist style (like Warsaw Philharmonic edifice originally inspired by Palais Garnier in Paris ). Despite that, the Warsaw University of Technology (Polytechnic) building. is the most interesting of the late 19th-century architecture. Some 19th-century industrial and brick workhouse buildings in

4914-463: The Śródmieście district, with many located in the commercial district of Wola . A concentric zone pattern emerged within the last decades; the majority of Warsaw's residents live outside the commercial city centre and commute by metro , bus or tram. Tenements and apartments in the central neighbourhoods are often reserved for commercial activity or temporary (tourist, student) accommodation. The nearest residential zones are predominantly located on

5040-515: The 19th century that had survived in a reasonably reconstructible form were nonetheless demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, like the Kronenberg Palace . The Śródmieście (central) region's urban system was completely reshaped; former cobblestone streets were asphalted and significantly widened for traffic use. Many notable streets such as Gęsia, Nalewki and Wielka disappeared as a result of these changes and some were split in half due to

5166-472: The 34 months of its existence. Of the more than two million Jews murdered in the course of Operation Reinhard , some 60,000 (56,000 known by name) were most certainly killed at Majdanek, amongst its almost 80,000 counted victims. The Soviets initially grossly overestimated the number of murders, claiming at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946 that there were no fewer than 400,000 Jewish victims, and

Majdanek trials - Misplaced Pages Continue

5292-550: The 880-meter Piaseczyński Canal on the axis of Ujazdów Castle , the Ujazdów Calvary and the Saxon Axis . The Visitationist Church also dates from this period. The neoclassical architecture began to be the main style in the capital's architecture in Warsaw in the second half of the 18th century thanks to King Stanisław August Poniatowski . It can be described by the simplicity of the geometrical forms teamed with

5418-606: The Home Army fighters and civilians assisting them were forced to capitulate. They were transported to PoW camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled. Polish civilian deaths are estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned. Monuments and government buildings were blown up by special German troops known as Verbrennungs- und Vernichtungskommando ("Burning and Destruction Detachments"). About 85% of

5544-415: The Majdanek Camp. Losses of our nation and the Home Army are equal to the losses which we suffered during the German occupation. We are paying with our blood." Among the prisoners at the Majdanek NKVD Camp were Volhynian members of the AK , and soldiers of the AK units which had been moving toward Warsaw to join in the Warsaw Uprising . On August 23, 1944, some 250 inmates from Majdanek were transported to

5670-462: The Majdanek Museum, which was cited by the museum for years. The current figure is considered "incredibly low" by Rajca, nevertheless, it has been accepted by the Museum Board of Directors "with a certain caution", pending further research into the number of prisoners who were not entered into the Holocaust train records by German camp administration. For now, the museum states that based on new research, some 150,000 prisoners arrived at Majdanek during

5796-602: The Praga district were restored, though many have been poorly maintained or demolished. Notable examples of post-war architecture include the Palace of Culture and Science , a soc-realist and art deco skyscraper based on the Empire State Building in New York. The Constitution Square with its monumental socialist realism architecture (MDM estate) was modelled on the grand squares of Paris, London, Moscow and Rome . Italianate tuscan-styled colonnades based on those at Piazza della Repubblica in Rome were also erected on Saviour Square . Contemporary architecture in Warsaw

5922-448: The Research Department of the Majdanek State Museum , calculated following the discovery of the Höfle Telegram in 2000. That number is close to the one currently indicated on the museum's website. The total number of victims has been a controversial since the research of Judge Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz in 1948, who approximated a figure of 360,000 victims. It was followed by an estimate of around 235,000 victims by Czesław Rajca (1992) of

6048-406: The SS before them used the same facilities to imprison and torture Polish patriots. On August 19, 1944, in a report to the Polish government-in-exile, the Lublin District of the Home Army (AK) wrote: "Mass arrests of the AK soldiers are being carried out by the NKVD all over the region. These arrests are tolerated by the Polish Committee of National Liberation , and AK soldiers are incarcerated in

6174-575: 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. The 3rd Majdanek trial was preceded by the Treblinka Trials also at Düsseldorf in 1964 and 1970. 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

6300-452: The Vistula terraces is asymmetrical. The left side consists mainly of two levels: the highest one contains former flooded terraces and the lowest one is the floodplain terrace. The contemporary flooded terrace still has visible valleys and ground depressions with water systems coming from the old Vistula – riverbed. They consist of still quite natural streams and lakes as well as the pattern of drainage ditches. The right side of Warsaw has

6426-430: 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. Some 18,000 Jews were killed at Majdanek on November 3, 1943, during

SECTION 50

#1732780246445

6552-440: The Zyklon B. The same poison gas pellets were used to disinfect prisoner clothing in barrack 42. Due to the pressing need for foreign manpower in the war industry, Jewish laborers from Poland were originally spared. For a time they were either kept in the ghettos, such as the one in Warsaw (which became a concentration camp after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ), or sent to labor camps such as Majdanek, where they worked primarily at

6678-413: The architectural landscape of the city only began in the mid-1920s. The forming state structures needed headquarters, leading to the construction of many monumental public buildings, including the buildings of the Sejm and the Senate , the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education , the Ministry of Public Works , the National Museum , the State Geological Institute , the State Agricultural Bank,

6804-435: The artists from the court circle of King Sigismund III Vasa (the early Warsaw Baroque is referred to as Vasa Baroque). Among the first structures of the early Baroque, the most important are St. Hyacinth's Church and Sigismund's Column , the first secular monument in the form of a column in modern history. At that time, part of the Royal Castle was rebuilt in this style, the Ujazdów Castle and numerous Baroque palaces on

6930-440: The beginnings of the German occupation, the territories of the surrounding municipalities were annexed to the city. Even before Poland regained its independence, parallel to the creation of the administration of the future state, the first urban visions were emerging. These included, among others, the construction of a representative government district in the southern part of Śródmieście . However, major changes in urban planning and

7056-426: The camp. In 2016, Majdanek State Museum and its branches, Sobibór and Bełżec, had about 210,000 visitors. This was an increase of 10,000 visitors from the previous year. Visitors include Jews, Poles, and others that wish to learn more about the harsh crimes against humanity. Warsaw Warsaw , officially the Capital City of Warsaw , is the capital and largest city of Poland . The metropolis stands on

7182-415: The capital of Poland and the country's centre of political and economic life. After World War II, the "Bricks for Warsaw" campaign was initiated and large prefabricated housing projects were erected in Warsaw to address the major housing shortage. Plattenbau -styled apartment buildings were seen as a solution to avoid Warsaw's former density problem and to create more green spaces. Some of the buildings from

7308-400: The capitals of the Commonwealth's two component parts, Poland and Lithuania, which were Kraków and Vilnius respectively, Warsaw became the capital of the Commonwealth and the Polish Crown when Sigismund III Vasa transferred his royal court in 1596. In the subsequent years the town significantly expanded to the south and westwards. Several private independent districts ( jurydyka ) were

7434-438: The centre of urban resistance to Nazi rule in occupied Europe. When the order came to annihilate the ghetto as part of Hitler 's " Final Solution " on 19 April 1943, Jewish fighters launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising . Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the ghetto held out for almost a month. When the fighting ended, almost all survivors were massacred, with only a few managing to escape or hide. By July 1944,

7560-401: The city across the Vistula . Warszawa Główna railway station (1932–1939) was not completed due to the outbreak of the Second World War . Stefan Starzyński was the Mayor of Warsaw between 1934 and 1939. After the German Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 started the Second World War, Warsaw was defended until 27 September. Central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of

7686-405: The city are the house of the Baryczko merchant family (1562), a building called "The Negro" (early 17th century), and Salwator tenement (1632), all situated on the Old Market Place . The most interesting examples of Mannerist architecture are the Royal Castle (1596–1619) and the Jesuit Church (1609–1626). Baroque architecture arrived in Warsaw at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries with

SECTION 60

#1732780246445

7812-438: The city centre, including the Warsaw Philharmonic , the Church of the Holiest Saviour and tenements along Marszałkowska Street . During World War I , Warsaw was occupied by Germany from 4 August 1915 until November 1918. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 concluded that defeated Germany is to withdraw from all foreign areas, which included Warsaw. Germany did so, and underground leader Józef Piłsudski returned to Warsaw on

7938-426: The city in a style similar to Dresden . The year 1727 marked the opening of the Saxon Garden in Warsaw, the first publicly accessible park. The Załuski Library , the first Polish public library and the largest at the time, was founded in 1747. Stanisław II Augustus , who remodelled the interior of the Royal Castle , also made Warsaw a centre of culture and the arts. He extended the Royal Baths Park and ordered

8064-416: The city the Jewish culture and history resonates down through time. Among them the most notable are the Jewish theater , the Nożyk Synagogue , Janusz Korczak 's Orphanage and the picturesque Próżna Street. The tragic pages of Warsaw's history are commemorated in places such as the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes , the Umschlagplatz , fragments of the ghetto wall on Sienna Street and a mound in memory of

8190-443: The city was destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. On 17 January 1945 – after the beginning of the Vistula–Oder Offensive of the Red Army  – Soviet troops and Polish troops of the First Polish Army entered the ruins of Warsaw, and liberated Warsaw's suburbs from German occupation. The city was swiftly freed by the Soviet Army, which rapidly advanced towards Łódź , as German forces regrouped at

8316-403: The city, and the Saxon Palace underwent a complete reconstruction, where the central body of the building was demolished and replaced by a monumental 11-bay colonnade . In the mid-19th century, the industrial revolution reached Warsaw, leading to the mass use of iron as a building material. In 1845, the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Station was opened. Another important aspect of the developing city

8442-502: The classes in the two precincts led to a minor revolt in 1525. Following the sudden death of Janusz III and the extinction of the local ducal line, Masovia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in 1526. Bona Sforza , wife of Sigismund I of Poland , was widely accused of poisoning the duke to uphold Polish rule over Warsaw. In 1529, Warsaw for the first time became the seat of a General Sejm and held that privilege permanently from 1569. The city's rising importance encouraged

8568-441: The construction of Plac Defilad (Parade Square), one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Much of the central district was also designated for future skyscrapers. The 237-metre Palace of Culture and Science resembling New York's Empire State Building was built as a gift from the Soviet Union. Warsaw's urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture. Despite wartime destruction and post-war remodelling, many of

8694-435: The construction of a new set of defenses, including the landmark Barbican . Renowned Italian architects were brought to Warsaw to reshape the Royal Castle , the streets and the marketplace, resulting in the Old Town's early Italianate appearance. In 1573, the city gave its name to the Warsaw Confederation which formally established religious freedom in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Due to its central location between

8820-471: The construction or refurbishment of numerous palaces, mansions and richly-decorated tenements. This earned Warsaw the nickname Paris of the North . Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the third and final partition of Poland ; it subsequently became the capital of the province of South Prussia . During this time, Louis XVIII of France spent his exile in Warsaw under

8946-435: The course of Operation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The original plan drafted by Himmler was for the camp to hold at least 25,000 POWs. After large numbers of Soviet prisoners-of-war were captured during the Battle of Kiev , the projected camp capacity was subsequently increased to 50,000. Construction for that many began on October 1, 1941 (as it did also in Auschwitz-Birkenau , which had received

9072-707: The data from the official Majdanek State Museum, 300,000 people were inmates of the camp at one time or another. The prisoner population at any given time was much lower. From October 1942 onward Majdanek also had female overseers. These SS guards, trained at the Ravensbrück concentration camp , included Elsa Ehrich , Hermine Boettcher-Brueckner , Hermine Braunsteiner , Hildegard Lächert , Rosy Suess (Süss), Elisabeth Knoblich-Ernst, Charlotte Karla Mayer-Woellert, and Gertrud Heise (1942–1944), who were later convicted as war criminals. Majdanek did not initially have subcamps. These were incorporated in early autumn 1943 when

9198-505: The de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, and subsequently as the seat of Napoleon 's Duchy of Warsaw . The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom, which made it one of the largest and most densely populated cities in Europe. Known then for its elegant architecture and boulevards, Warsaw was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939. Much of

9324-505: 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

9450-444: The expansion and modernisation of trams, street lighting, and gas infrastructure. Between 1850 and 1882, the population grew by 134% to 383,000 as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. Many migrated from surrounding rural Masovian towns and villages to the city for employment opportunities. The western borough of Wola was transformed from an agricultural periphery occupied mostly by small farms and windmills (mills being

9576-602: The face" of Poland. These words were meaningful for Varsovians and Poles who understood them as the incentive for liberal-democratic reforms. In 1995, the Warsaw Metro opened with a single line. A second line was opened in March 2015. On 28 September 2022, three new Warsaw metro stations were opened, increasing the number of Warsaw Metro stations to 36 and its length to 38.3 kilometers. In February 2023, Warsaw's mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski , announced plans to more than double

9702-645: The first Allied soldiers to see the gas chambers, and initially overestimated the total number of victims. 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-Obersturmführer Anton Thernes , SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Gerstenmeier , SS-Oberscharführer Hermann Vögel , Kapo Edmund Pohlmann, SS-Rottenführer Theodor Schöllen and Kapo Heinrich Stalp. After

9828-544: The former buildings—is mostly bare. A fire in August 2010 destroyed one of the wooden buildings that was being used as a museum to house seven thousand pairs of prisoners' shoes. The city of Lublin has tripled in size since the end of World War II , and even the main camp is today within the boundaries of the city of Lublin. It is clearly visible to many inhabitants of the city's high-rises, a fact that many visitors remark upon. The gardens of houses and flats border on and overlook

9954-529: The historic city was destroyed and its diverse population decimated by the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, the general Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and systematic razing . Warsaw is served by three international airports, the busiest being Warsaw Chopin , as well as Warsaw Modlin and Warsaw Radom Airport . Major public transport services operating in the city include the Warsaw Metro , buses , commuter rail service and an extensive tram network . The city

10080-471: The historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. John Paul II 's visits to his native country in 1979 and 1983 brought support to the budding "Solidarity" movement and encouraged the growing anti-communist fervor there. In 1979, less than a year after becoming pope, John Paul celebrated Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw and ended his sermon with a call to "renew

10206-443: The horrors found there were widely publicised. Although 1,000 inmates had previously been forcibly marched to Auschwitz (of whom only half arrived alive), the Red Army still found thousands of inmates, mainly POWs, still in the camp, and ample evidence of the mass murder that had occurred there. The official estimate of 78,000 victims, of those 59,000 Jews, was determined in 2005 by Tomasz Kranz  [ pl ] , director of

10332-786: The isotherm used; although the city used to be humid continental regardless of isotherm prior to the recent effect of climate change and the city's urban heat island . Meanwhile, by the genetic climate classification of Wincenty Okołowicz , it has a temperate "fusion" climate, with both oceanic and continental features. The city has cold, sometimes snowy, cloudy winters, and warm, relatively sunny but frequently stormy summers. Spring and autumn can be unpredictable, highly prone to sudden weather changes; however, temperatures are usually mild, especially around May and September. The daily average temperature ranges between −1.5 °C (29 °F) in January and 19.7 °C (67.5 °F) in July and

10458-593: The largest of its kind in the world. The reconstructed Old Town , which represents a variety of European architectural styles, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1980. Other landmarks include the Royal Castle , Sigismund's Column , the Wilanów Palace , the Palace on the Isle , St. John's Archcathedral , Main Market Square , and numerous churches and mansions along the Royal Route . Warsaw

10584-623: The largest single-day, single-camp massacre of the Holocaust , named Harvest Festival (totalling 43,000 with 2 subcamps). 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 . Both SS men were charged with wholesale stealing from

10710-479: The local Polish name remained more popular. After the camp's liberation in July 1944, the site was formally protected by the Soviet Union . By autumn, with the war still raging, it had been preserved as a museum. The crematorium ovens and gas chambers were largely intact, serving as some of the best examples of the genocidal policy of Nazi Germany . The site was given national designation in 1965. Today,

10836-432: The main camp at Majdanek, the most notorious executions occurred on November 3, 1943, when 18,400 Jews were murdered in a single day. The next morning, 25 Jews who had succeeded in hiding were found and shot. Meanwhile, 611 other prisoners, 311 women and 300 men, were commanded to sort through the clothes of the dead and cover the burial trenches. The men were later assigned to Sonderkommando 1005 , where they had to exhume

10962-511: The mean year temperature is 9.0 °C (48.2 °F). Temperatures may reach 30 °C (86 °F) in the summer, although the effects of hot weather are usually offset by relatively low dew points and large diurnal temperature differences. Warsaw is Europe's sixth driest major city (driest in Central Europe ), with yearly rainfall averaging 550 mm (22 in), the wettest month being July. Warsaw's long and eclectic history left

11088-601: The most incriminating evidence of war crimes. The camp was nicknamed Majdanek ("little Majdan") in 1941 by local residents, as it was adjacent to the Lublin ghetto of Majdan Tatarski. Nazi documents initially described the site as a POW camp of the Waffen-SS , based on how it was funded and operated. It was renamed by the Reich Security Main Office as Konzentrationslager Lublin on April 9, 1943, but

11214-713: The most notable examples are the Great Theater , buildings located at Bank Square , headquarters of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences ( Staszic Palace ), St. Alexander's Church , the Belweder . Many classicist tenement houses were built on Senatorska Street and along Nowy Świat Street . After the outbreak of the November Uprising , the Warsaw Citadel was constructed in the north of

11340-476: The names of Polish cities derived from personal names usually end in -ów/owo/ew/ewo (e.g. Piotrków, Adamów). Folk etymology attributes the city name to Wars and Sawa . There are several versions of the legend with their appearance. According to one version, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula with whom fisherman Wars fell in love. The official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa ("The Capital City of Warsaw"). A native or resident of Warsaw

11466-432: The namesake of Wola's central neighbourhood Młynów ) to an industrial and manufacturing centre. Metallurgical , textile and glassware factories were commonplace, with chimneys dominating the westernmost skyline. Like London , Warsaw's population was subjected to income segmentation. Gentrification of inner suburbs forced poorer residents to move across the river into Praga or Powiśle and Solec districts, similar to

11592-464: The number of victims more or less corresponded to the crematoria capacity. Later researchers tried to take much more evidence into account, using records of deportations, contemporaneous population censuses, and recovered Nazi records. Hilberg's 1961 estimate, using these records, aligns closely with Kranz's report. After the camp takeover, in August 1944 the Soviets protected the camp area and convened

11718-646: The official Soviet count was of 1.5 million victims of different nationalities, Independent Canadian journalist Raymond Arthur Davies, based in Moscow and on the payroll of the Canadian Jewish Congress , visited Majdanek on August 28, 1944. The following day he sent a telegram to Saul Hayes , the executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress. It states: "I do wish [to] stress that Majdanek where one million Jews and half

11844-558: The open. By mid-November, only 500 of them were still alive, of whom at least 30% were incapable of further labor. In mid-December, barracks for 20,000 were ready when a typhus epidemic broke out, and by January 1942 all the slave laborers – POWs as well as Polish Jews – were dead. All work ceased until March 1942, when new prisoners arrived. Although the camp did eventually have the capacity to hold approximately 50,000 prisoners, it did not grow significantly beyond that size. In July 1942, Himmler visited Belzec , Sobibor , and Treblinka ,

11970-586: The outskirts of the inner borough, in Ochota , Mokotów and Żoliborz or along the Vistula in Powiśle . A seat of Polish monarchs since the end of the 16th century, Warsaw remained a small city with only privately owned palaces, mansions, villas and several streets of townhouses. These displayed a richness of color and architectonic details. The finest German, Italian and Dutch architects were employed, among them Tylman van Gameren , Andreas Schlüter , Jakub Fontana , and Enrico Marconi . The buildings situated in

12096-489: The plain moraine plateau and the Vistula Valley with its asymmetrical pattern of different terraces. The Vistula River is the specific axis of Warsaw, which divides the city into two parts, left and right. The left one is situated both on the moraine plateau (10 to 25 m (33 to 82 ft) above Vistula level) and on the Vistula terraces (max. 6.5 m (21 ft) above Vistula level). The significant element of

12222-531: The prisoners assigned to Sonderkommando 1005 ). From June 1942, the SS disposed of the bodies by burning them, either on pyres made from the chassis of old lorries or in a crematorium. The so-called First Crematorium had two ovens which were brought to Majdanek from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . This facility stood in "Interfield I", the area between the first and the second fenced camp section; it

12348-667: The property of aristocrats and the gentry, which they ruled by their own laws. Between 1655 and 1658 the city was besieged and pillaged by the Swedish, Brandenburgian and Transylvanian forces. The conduct of the Great Northern War (1700–1721) also forced Warsaw to pay heavy tributes to the invading armies. The reign of Augustus II and Augustus III was a time of great development for Warsaw, which turned into an early-capitalist city. The Saxon monarchs employed many German architects, sculptors and engineers, who rebuilt

12474-421: The prosecution (many of the key witnesses having died). 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

12600-482: The pseudonym Comte de Lille . Warsaw was made the capital of a newly created French client state , known as the Duchy of Warsaw , after a portion of Poland's territory was liberated from Prussia, Russia and Austria by Napoleon in 1806. Following Napoleon's defeat and exile, the 1815 Congress of Vienna assigned Warsaw to Congress Poland , a constitutional monarchy within the easternmost sector (or partition) under

12726-583: The rail station Lublin Tatary . There, all victims were placed in cattle cars and taken to camps in Siberia and other parts of the Soviet Union. In July 1969, on the 25th anniversary of its liberation, a large monument designed by Wiktor Tołkin (a.k.a. Victor Tolkin) was constructed at the site. It consists of two parts: a large gate monument at the camp's entrance and a large mausoleum holding ashes of

12852-429: The relief, in this part of Warsaw, is the edge of moraine plateau called Warsaw Escarpment. It is 20 to 25 m (66 to 82 ft) high in the Old Town and Central district and about 10 m (33 ft) in the north and south of Warsaw. It goes through the city and plays an important role as a landmark. The plain moraine plateau has only a few natural and artificial ponds and also groups of clay pits . The pattern of

12978-495: The remaining forced labor camps around Lublin, including Budzyn, Trawniki , Poniatowa , Krasnik, Pulawy, as well as the "Airstrip" (" Airfield "), and "Lipowa 7" ) concentration camps became sub-camps of Majdanek. From 1 September 1941 to 28 May 1942, Alfons Bentele headed the Administration in the camp. Alois Kurz, SS Untersturmführer , was a German staff member at Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and at Mittelbau-Dora. He

13104-798: The same bodies for cremation. These men were then executed. The 311 women were subsequently sent to Auschwitz , where they were murdered by gas. By the end of Aktion Erntefest ("Harvest Festival"), Majdanek had only 71 Jews left out of the total number of 6,562 prisoners still alive. Executions of the remaining prisoners continued at Majdanek in the following months. Between December 1943 and March 1944, Majdanek received approximately 18,000 so-called "invalids", many of whom were subsequently murdered with Zyklon B . Executions by firing squad continued as well, with 600 shot on January 21, 1944; 180 shot on January 23, 1944; and 200 shot on March 24, 1944. Adjutant Karl Höcker's postwar trial documented his culpability in mass murders committed at this camp: On 3 May 1989

13230-671: The same day which marked the beginning of the Second Polish Republic , the first truly sovereign Polish state after 1795. In the course of the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921), the 1920 Battle of Warsaw was fought on the eastern outskirts of the city. Poland successfully defended the capital, stopped the brunt of the Bolshevik Red Army and temporarily halted the " export of the communist revolution " to other parts of Europe. The interwar period (1918–1939)

13356-510: The same order). In early November, the plans were extended to allow for 125,000 inmates and in December to 150,000. It was further increased in March 1942 to allow for 250,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Construction began with 150 Jewish forced laborers from one of Globocnik's Lublin camps, to which the prisoners returned each night. Later the workforce included 2,000 Red Army POWs, who had to survive extreme conditions, including sleeping out in

13482-805: The same year, some 1,300 m of surface soil mixed with human ashes and fragments of bones was collected and turned into a large mound. Majdanek became a national museum in 1965. Some Nazi personnel of the camp were prosecuted immediately after the war, and some in the decades afterward. In November and December 1944, four SS Men and two kapos were placed on trial; one committed suicide and the rest were hanged on December 3, 1944. The last major, widely publicized prosecution of 16 SS members from Majdanek ( Majdanek-Prozess in German) took place from 1975 to 1981 in West Germany. Of 1,037 SS members who worked at Majdanek and are known by name, 170 were prosecuted, due to

13608-487: The site today is a reconstruction from the time when the former camp became a memorial. Its ovens are the original ones built in 1943. Operation Reinhard continued until early November 1943, when the last Jewish prisoners of the Majdanek system of subcamps from the District Lublin in the General Government were massacred by the firing squads of Trawniki men during Operation "Harvest Festival" . With respect to

13734-415: The size of the city's metro system by 2050. With the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004, Warsaw is experiencing the large economic boom. The opening fixture of UEFA Euro 2012 took place in Warsaw and the city also hosted the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the 2016 NATO Summit . As of August 2022, Warsaw had received around 180,000 refugees from Ukraine, because of

13860-487: The three secret extermination camps built specifically for Operation Reinhard to eliminate Polish Jewry . These camps had begun operations in March, May, and July 1942, respectively. Subsequently, Himmler issued an order that the deportations of Jews to the camps from the five districts of occupied Poland , which constituted the Nazi Generalgouvernement , be completed by the end of 1942. Majdanek

13986-605: The town housed approximately 4,500 people at the time. During the 15th century, the population migrated and spread beyond the northern city wall into a newly formed self-governing precinct called New Town . The existing older settlement became eventually known as the Old Town . Both possessed their own town charter and independent councils. The aim of establishing a separate district was to accommodate new incomers or "undesirables" who were not permitted to settle in Old Town, particularly Jews . Social and financial disparities between

14112-644: 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. They were all hanged on December 3, 1944. 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

14238-533: The vicinity of the Warsaw Old Town represent nearly every European architectural style and historical period . Warsaw has excellent examples of architecture from the Gothic , Renaissance , Baroque and Neoclassical periods, all of which are located within walking distance of the centre. This architectural richness has led to Warsaw being described by some commentators as a " Paris of the East ". Gothic architecture

14364-599: The victims at its opposite end. In October 2005, in cooperation with the Majdanek museum, four Majdanek survivors returned to the site and enabled archaeologists to find some 50 objects which had been buried by inmates, including watches, earrings, and wedding rings. According to the documentary film Buried Prayers , this was the largest reported recovery of valuables in a death camp to date. Interviews between government historians and Jewish survivors were not frequent before 2005. The camp today occupies about half of its original 2.7 square kilometres (670 acres), and—but for

14490-616: Was Tylman van Gameren . His projects include the Krasiński Palace , Palace of the Four Winds , Ostrogski Palace , Czapski Palace , Brühl Palace , and St. Kazimierz Church . The most significant Baroque building of this period is the Wilanów Palace , built on the order of King John III Sobieski . The late Baroque era was the epoch of the Saxon Kings (1697–1763). During this time, three major spatial projects were realized:

14616-467: Was Zyklon B. In late July 1944, with Soviet forces rapidly approaching Lublin, the Germans hastily evacuated the camp and partially destroyed the crematoria before Soviet Red Army troops arrived on July 24, 1944. Majdanek is the best-preserved camp of the Holocaust due to incompetence by its deputy commander, Anton Thernes . It was the first major concentration camp liberated by Allied forces, and

14742-516: Was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II . It had seven gas chambers , two wooden gallows, and some 227 structures in all, placing it among the largest of Nazi concentration camps. Although initially intended for forced labor rather than extermination , it

14868-489: Was a time of major development in the city's infrastructure. New modernist housing estates were built in Mokotów to de-clutter the densely populated inner suburbs. In 1921, Warsaw's total area was estimated at only 124.7 km with 1 million inhabitants–over 8,000 people/km made Warsaw more densely populated than contemporary London. The Średnicowy Bridge was constructed for railway (1921–1931), connecting both parts of

14994-619: Was diagnosed with typhus. Most other SS men were sentenced from 2 to 12 years' imprisonment. 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. At

15120-485: Was displayed at the camp museum. The 2005 research by the Head of Scientific Department at Majdanek Museum, historian Tomasz Kranz indicated that there were 79,000 victims, 59,000 of them Jews. The differences between the estimates stem from different methods used and the amounts of evidence available to the researchers. The Soviet figures relied on the crudest methodology, used for Auschwitz estimates also—it assumed that

15246-407: Was ensuring access to water and sewage disposal. The first modern Warsaw water supply system was launched in 1855, designed by one of the most outstanding architects of that period – Enrico Marconi , who designed also All Saints Church . The dynamic development of the railway became a factor that enabled equally dynamic development of Warsaw's industry. Among the establishments built at that time were

15372-654: Was fired upon by Russian troops. Five people were killed. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw during the January Uprising in 1863–64. Warsaw flourished throughout the 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), who was appointed by Alexander III . Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley , as well as

15498-479: Was made into a secondary sorting and storage depot at the onset of Operation Reinhard, for property and valuables taken from the victims at the killing centers in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Due to large Jewish populations in southeastern Poland, including the ghettos at Kraków , Lwów , Zamość and Warsaw , which were not yet "processed", Majdanek was refurbished as a killing center around March 1942. The gassing

15624-460: Was not charged. On 18 June 1943, Fritz Ritterbusch moved to KL Lublin to become aide-de-camp to the Commandant. Due to the camp's proximity to Lublin, prisoners were able to communicate with the outside world through letters smuggled out by civilian workers who entered the camp. Many of these surviving letters have been donated by their recipients to the camp museum. In 2008 the museum held

15750-543: Was performed in plain view of other inmates, without as much as a fence around the buildings. Another frequent murder method was shootings by the squads of Trawnikis . According to the Majdanek Museum , the gas chambers began operation in September 1942. There are two identical buildings at Majdanek where Zyklon B was used. Executions were carried out in barrack 41 with crystalline hydrogen cyanide released by

15876-501: Was used to murder people on an industrial scale during Operation Reinhard , the German plan to murder all Polish Jews within their own occupied homeland . In operation from 1 October 1941 to 22 July 1944, it was captured nearly intact. The rapid advance of the Soviet Red Army during Operation Bagration prevented the SS from destroying most of its infrastructure, and Deputy Camp Commandant Anton Thernes failed to remove

#444555