Prior to our tour of the Majdanek Extermination Camp with Michael Tregenza, we spoke with a long-time Majdanek educational staffer, Beata Siwek-Ciupak, about the camp. The raw transcript follows:

TLP: How long have you worked in the camp and why?

Guide: I have been working in the State Museum of Majdanek for 12 years, and why? Because they built this camp in Lublin for people who were imprisoned there on account of their origin or their political opposition to the Nazis.

It happened many years ago, the witnesses of those events are passing away and the memory of those who were imprisoned there should be kept for the next generation. I am already of the next generation, and we have to save this knowledge for all those who have not had an opportunity to learn about this until now. Somebody has to do it.

TLP: Why is it important for the rest of the world to know what has happened here?

Guide: Why is it important? Because people should know what were the mechanisms that caused some to be so full of hate towards others of different race or different ethnic origin. As we learn the rationale for those events it may be possible to avoid these kinds of conflicts in the future so that things like that won't happen again.

TLP: Why is it that it seems as if history repeats itself? Majdanek has happened yet even today people are willing to kill large groups of other people? Why do you think it happens, why don't we learn from our mistakes?

Guide: I really cannot answer why it repeatedly happens; perhaps we do not appreciate what we have been given and we don't help each other. People want to have more and more and very often this happens at someone else's cost. They have no respect for the value of life, which they and the others have; they are not able to understand each other. This is probably the main reason why people don't learn from history.

TLP: How do you find hope in the midst of such sufferings? Knowing what you know about Majdanek, knowing what you know about the world today, Darfur, Serbia, and Croatia, what gives you a sense of hope about the future?

Guide: I know what people did to others here in Majdanek, how many awful things they did, but I also heard from people who were prisoners in Majdanek and how they gained from being here. They have had many good experiences, they have learned how to live, that in spite of the horrible conditions in which the prisoners lived here they could maintain their humanity. Even in such difficult conditions, so primitive like Majdanek, one could maintain humanity. And I am trying to bear this in mind, first of all. And, in spite of everything, if a person is compassionate, he can still maintain humanity, he can offer help in a situation that seems to be helpless. Thus, one extended a helping hand, shared his small food portion, helped with medications, and arranged better living conditions so one could rest longer and, if need be, stole shoes from the warehouse. All of these risks were taken by friends for one's life or health. And this constitutes hope for the future. There will always be someone, or should be, who will offer a helping hand, who comes to one's senses in this madness.

TLP: Would you describe to us where we are, the room we are in?

Guide: At this moment we are in the barrack, which mirrors the living conditions of the prisoners in 1942. As one can see, these conditions were very difficult, very hard; there is no floor, there is no bathroom. The prisoners could not maintain proper hygiene. As you can see, there were no beds and the prisoners slept directly on the ground with mattresses filled with old straw. Each was given a blanket, but the blankets were not of equal size and there were some who did not receive one. Sometimes it was just part of a blanket; sometimes it was so full of lice that it could not be used. In general, the cover was not sufficient and to keep warm the inmates slept in twos with one blanket underneath and one used as a cover. And these were the conditions in this barrack. With time the conditions improved. Thus, in 1943 there was floor, the prisoners slept in beds, and in the middle of the year they built bathrooms, so although being very primitive, they helped to improve the hygiene of the prisoners.