Conflicting memories: History, testimony, and a hanging at the Majdanek Camp in 1943

Starting with the occurrence of a hanging that took place in the women’s section of the Majdanek concentration camp during the summer of 1943, this article analyses the depositions made by survivors of the camp before the Court of Appeal of Dusseldorf (1975-1981). In the absence of any written documentation, prosecutors in the Majdanek trial relied exclusively on the testimonies of survivors, which became problematic given that although all women prisoners of the camp had been forced to attend the execution, they did not all claim to have witnessed the same things. Examining survivors’ depositions from a strictly epistemological perspective, this article explores the heuristic value of such a highly ambiguous source. The triangulation of survivors’ testimonies with other sources allows us to shed light on the complex dynamics that operated within the society of the concentration camp, as well as on the ambivalent and contradictory nature of the depositions.