The concentration and extermination camp of Majdanek was situated in a quarter of the city of Lublin and planned in September 1941 as prisoners-of-war camp for the Waffen-SS. In 1942/43 it was mainly Poles (both Jewish and non-Jewish), and Jews from the former Czechoslovakia, Slovenia and the ghettos in Warsaw and Bialystok who were detained there. On 16 February 1943 the camp was renamed Lublin concentration camp.

Between September and November 1942, a gassing plant was installed where victims were murdered both with »Zyklon B« and carbon monoxide. On account of the appalling living conditions in the camp the death rate among the prisoners was considerable even without the murder programs. On 3 November 1943 all Jews living at this point in Majdanek/Lublin camp, 17,000 people, were shot in the course of the »Aktion Erntedankfest« (Harvest Festival). From this day the gas chambers were probably no longer used. On 23 July 1944 the camp was liberated. The total number of victims is presumed by historians to be approx. 200,000 people, including 60,000–80,000 Jews.

For the time being we cannot establish with absolute certainty how many Austrians have been murdered in the extermination camp Majdanek/Lublin. Of the 999 Austrian Jews deported to Modliborzyce in March 1941, 13 are known to have survived. All the others died in the ghetto or were transported to Belzec or Majdanek.