Before she left , Esther set out to see Majdanek for herself . The Polish Army had taken over the camp , and soldiers who had been there for a while served as guides , taking new recruits around to point out the horrors inflicted by the Nazis . Esther noticed the enormous cabbages growing in the fields around the crematorium , later learning that it had been the dumping site for ashes . She saw the piles of shoes , and learned about the massacre at nearby Krepicki Forest , where 18.000 Polish Jews were slaughtered in November 1943
Krepicki Forest ,
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz