Extermination camp Majdanek was visible from the Lublin City Suburbs. It is incomprehensible that none of the residents ever claimed to have had knowledge of what took place behind the barbed wire fences and machine-gun towers. An eerie silence on the subject matter has hung over this place. True, residents, who themselves were treated in a barbaric way by the Nazis, were virtually powerless against the German occupation powers. Yet, they must have seen that hundreds of thousands of Jews entered the camp and that very few, if any, ever left that place alive. From 1942 to 1944 Majdanek Jewish inmates were beaten and tortured by Nazi guards for the most trivial of offenses. Hundreds of thousands Polish Jews were murdered in gas chambers or else were killed by mass shooting.

       This US reconnaissance photo shows that Majdanek was surrounded by a wire fence, with at least 50 houses on the camp's west side and the Lublin to Chelm highway on the camp's east side. Aerial view of the camp shows that the gas chamber building is located in the upper left of the photo, outside the barbed wire fence. The crematorium is located at the bottom of the photo adjacent to the outside of the fence. The housing complex in the lower left corner of the photo belongs to a Lublin suburb from where residents had a clear view of the entire camp.

       Conclusion: Most buildings within the barbed wire fence, the gas chambers and crematoria that were outside the fence, were visible to thousands of the Lublin suburb residents each day. Yet, the well oiled Nazi machine chose this location to physically mistreat and/or murder Jews and other inmates. No objections nor words of sympathy from the neighboring population of the town of Majdanek were ever voiced or recorded, neither during nor following the war years. However, some resistance movements were active within the camp at various times. Where and when possible they extended help to Polish prisoners. Nevertheless, close to 500,000 persons from 28 countries and belonging to 54 different nationalities passed through Majdanek. Of these, according to current estimates, between 100,000 and up to 275,000 Jews and between 250,000 and up to 500,0000 non-Jews perished. It is impossible to trace the number Russian POWs killed by the Nazi's in camps such as Majdanek.