Like most other Nazi camps, the conditions of life were incredibly barbaric. There were daily executions by shooting or being hung. January 31, 1942 inmates were forced to build “Station Z”. It was an installation built for the execution of the prisoners. To show how the new installation was efficient, 96 Jews were shot and killed. In March 1943, a gas chamber was added to the station, and it was used till the end of the war.
The <47th Soviet Army finally liberated the camp on April 22, 1945. The soldiers found only 3,000 survivors in the camp, it included 1,400 women. Most having been starved and even to week to welcome their liberators. Despite the care they received, many inmates’ dies in the following days of the liberation. It is estimated that there were anywhere from 30-35,000 victims.