Mayor pledges to block crematorium by former Majdanek camp

Memorial at Majdanek

In a letter to the American-based Jewish organisation the Anti-Defamation League, an institution that had raised concerns about the project last week, Mayor Krzysztof Zuk outlined his hopes that a buffer zone surrounding the former Nazi German camp would be turned into a protected area.

He intends to propose such a resolution to the city council this week.

“I understand the outrage of many communities, which stand firmly opposed to the proposal to build this type of building so close to the site of the former extermination camp,” Mayor Zuk affirmed.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure this place in Lublin is treated with due respect and is regarded as a most sacred place of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust.”

The former camp is currently a state museum, and in 2008 commercial funeral company Styx was denied a permit to build a crematorium in the vicinity of the museum.

Nevertheless, an appeal court has now ruled that the city should reconsider the application for a permit.

It is estimated that close to 80,000 people perished at Majdanek during the Second World War. The majority of the victims were Jewish.

Catholic Poles counted for about a fifth of the camp's inmates. Many of the prisoners were taken by illness, but a large portion were systematically murdered and incinerated in the camp crematorium. (nh)