Lublin; Friday, 27 July, 2018

Breakfast in Lublin was a significantly more civilised event than it had been in Warsaw, so I had a slightly more relaxed meal and then headed out to the bus stop to catch the trolley bus out to the former Nazi extermination camp at Majdanek.

Majdanek is a harrowing place to visit, not only because so many people were deliberately killed here in the gas chamber, but also for how close it is to the city. In places like Auschwitz the camps were a long way from civilisation, as though the Nazi’s were trying to hide what they were doing – here at Majdanek the city’s suburbs come right up to the fences.

Much of the site was destroyed by the fleeing Nazi’s as the Red Army approached, but the Red Army did come faster than the Nazi’s were expecting and some significant parts of the site survived and ever since have been turned into a memorial to those who died.

On a hot and humid day walking round the site was uncomfortable, in particular looking in any of the barrack blocks which were even hotter and stickier than outside. I had plenty of water and knew I was only spending a couple of hours there, even then it was still difficult to imagine how people coped with being in the camp for weeks or months on end with the high probability of death being their only way out.

At the top of the site is the mausoleum, which, on an already harrowing site, is probably the most harrowing part. Under the dome of the mausoleum are the cremated ashes of just some of the victims of the camp, those who were killed in the period immediately prior to the site being taken by the Red Army. The mound of ashes is massive, and it’s difficult to comprehend that this is only a fraction of the human life that was destroyed here.

After looking round the camp I caught a trolley bus back into town and headed back to the Rynek to have a late lunch.

A lengthy lunch completed I headed round the corner to the Wieza Tyranitarska, one of the former gates of the city whose tower you can climb for stunning views over the city centre, including the Rynek and the castle.

Having taken in the views I descended back down to ground level and then wandered through the old town, taking in the ruins of a medieval church in Plac Po Farze before heading back down towards the bus stops near the castle.

I caught the bus back to the hotel to drop off some of my stuff and freshen up, and then headed back out again into town a little later for a light dinner and a little bit more of a walk around the old town before returning to the hotel and turning in for the night.