Yiddish

1st Yiddish edition. Original illustrated paper wrappers. 12mo. 95 pages, 14 cm. In Yiddish with some Russian. Title translates to “Lublin Extermination-Camp Majdanek.” Soviet war correspondent and poet Konstantin Simonov’s booklet on the atrocities of the Majdanek camp, published simultaneously in several languages, was only the second monograph published on the atrocities at Majdanek. Simonov (1915-1979) was a highly decorated poet, novelist, playright, and war correspondent whose works were widely known (Wikipedia, 2018) . A Polish-Soviet Special Criminal Court was established in Lublin in August 1944 in order to investigate the Nazi crimes in the Majdanek extermination camp, with Simonov covering the proceedings as the basis for this work. The Majdanek concentration camp was established on Heinrich Himmler's order and operated from October 1, 1941 until it was liberated by the Soviet Army on July 22, 1944. It is known to be the best preserved Nazi concentration camp of the Holocaust, as the Germans did not have enough time to destroy the evidences of their crimes. The Commission for investigating the German crimes was established in August 1944 and soon they published this booklet in several languages. Despite of the importance of this statement it must be mentioned that the Commission made many erroneous assumptions regarding the duration of the camp or number of people killed at Majdanek, probably because they were motivated rather by political and propaganda agenda than by a search for historical facts. The total number of the victims is still controversial, in this report 1.5 million victims of different nationalities were counted, however according to the latest researches there were 79, 000 victims, 59, 000 of whom were Jews. [Kranz, T. : Bookkeeping of Death and Prisoner Mortality at Majdanek. Pp. 81-110. In: Silberklang, D. (ed. ) : Yad Vashem Studies. Vol. 35: 1. Jerusalem, 2007.]. SUBJECTS: World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities. World War, 1939-1945 (OCLC: 145083668) . Light wear to wrappers and pages browning. Otherwise very good condition. (HOLO2-142-4-ALR)