Henio 's father , Shmuel Zytomirski , was transferred to a forced labor camp outside Majdanek , where the prisoners built a sports stadium for the SS . From the camp he managed to send a few last letters to his brother Yehuda in Palestine and to the Zionist delegation in İstanbul . On 3 November 1943 the massive extermination of all remaining Jewish prisoners in Majdanek and the other camps in Lublin District took place . This liquidation is known as " Aktion Erntefest " , which in German means " Harvest Festival " . On that day 18,400 Jews were murdered in Majdanek . At the end of this killing operation , Lublin District was declared '' Judenrein , '' i.e. , " clean of Jews " . Surprisingly , Shmuel Zytomirski survived also this mass extermination . This is known because he sent a letter from Lublin by courier to the Jewish delegation in İstanbul on 6 January 1944 . It is not clear where this letter was sent from . The city of Lublin was captured by the Soviet Red Army on 22 July 1944 . It is known for certain that Shmuel Zytomirski did not survive the Holocaust , but his cause , date , and place of death are unknown
Aktion Erntefest
Aktion Erntefest
Henio Zytomirski