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.