Airfield Camp

1943 Map

September 1944 Air Photo

The Lublin airfield and the Plage & Laskiewicz Mechanical Plant (since 1936 Lublin Aircraft Factory "LWS") were bombed on 2 and 4 September 1939.
See a photo of the airfield in late September 1939.

In a Hangar

Lublin Airfield

On 7 September the equipment and workers from the factory were evacuated to Rumania. Also the airplanes were evacuated from Lublin to Rumania where the Rumanian army accepted them. In June 1941 the Rumanian airforce used the Polish bombers from Lublin for air raids on Odessa (Ukraine).
From July until August 1940 Lublin Jews were forced to build up a work camp on the site of the former Lublin airfield.

Hangar at Lublin Airfield in 1941

Hangars in 2002

In the remaining aircraft hangars and several other buildings of the former factory Jews had to sort, clean, disinfect, store and pack mountains of delivered belongings from their murdered fellows. These stolen goods came from the camps Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek, delivered by rail. Men and women, mainly from Majdanek, worked in separate parts of the camp.

Tar Paper Factory #1

Tar Paper Factory #2

In early 1941, the DAW (Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke / German Equipment Works), an SS enterprise, took over workshops in the camp. Other SS works like the SS Clothing Works (summer 1941), OSTI (Ostindustrie GmbH / East Industries Inc., March 1943) or the SS Troop Supply Depot produced or did up goods by taking advantage of Jewish forced labourers.
Workshops at the camp site: A glass factory, tar paper factory, truck farm, brush factory, shoe factory (shoes with wooden soles), furs production and more.
The goods were delivered to the front and to Germany.

Gas Chambers Building #1

Gas Chambers Building #2

In four gas chambers clothings and furs were disinfected with Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the Auschwitz gas chambers too. After arrival of Lorenz Hackenholt, the Aktion Reinhard gas chambers "expert", the Lublin airfield gas chambers were used for gassing prisoners.

Wirth's House

SS Housing at Ul. Fabryczna

In late 1942, the chief inspector of DAW and Aktion Reinhard, Christian Wirth, was appointed commandant and deputy director of the camp. He resided in a house nearby the tar paper factory at the camp site. That house was used as SS canteen too. Beautiful young Jewish women had to serve as waitresses. Today the building is rented by a family.
The SS guards (Germans and Ukrainians) lived in a huge 4 storeys building a few metres away from Wirth's house. They were ordered from Majdanek to the camp. Today the building is a residential block at Ul. Fabryczna.

Original Rails

Original Wall

The rails of the former railway track into the camp are still partially visible. They lead towards the ramp, along the backside of the former tar paper factory. Prisoners and goods wagons passed these rails.
Remnants of the outer wall were still visible in 2004, in the area of the former railway track near the tar paper factory.










The Old Airfield camp was closed on 3 November 1943 in the course of the Aktion Erntefest ("Action Harvest Festival").
On this day all prisoners were brought to Majdanek for execution.