²³ Photos from M. are not permitted to circulate. A sketch is provided instead.
“The State Museum at Majdanek was founded in November 1944 on the grounds of the former German concentration camp. It is an institution directly subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In addition to organizing exhibitions, the museum also runs educational and academic activities. “
“ARE DOGS ALLOWED ON THE GROUNDS OF THE MUSEUM?
Animals are not allowed on the grounds of the State Museum at Majdanek except for guide dogs accompanying the visually impaired.”
Adjacent to the permanent exhibit, through the glass windows of the mens’ toilets, one can see miradors, peering in, while one pisses or washes hands. We watch each other in silence. Perhaps faces still cling behind the wooden planks, faces without any features, as if deaf and dumb, and mute or unspeaking. In such a state, it is difficult to separate the guards’ and the prisoners’ phantoms — who watches who records and to what end. Why have they stayed here ? I stay a long time in the bathroom, washing hands under the mirador gaze. Something troubles me, that can’t be washed away or cleaned; this juxtaposition, this gaze…Is it very wrong or very right, or simply faithful to such a space, to what has been and can be here ?