Prisoners were tied to poles and flogged. Others died from the grueling work. That doesn't include the estimated hundreds of Russian prisoners of war excuted there, those assigned to the Dachau camp for execution, or others who died on death marches while being transferred from Dachau. An eerie quiet rests over the vast camp today. Most of the barracks were torn down after the camp's liberation.
Various monuments dedicated to the prisoners are on display around the camp.
A huge dark metallic sculpture of twisted skeletons and barbed wire stands outside the museum. At some point, the enormity of it all hits you. The thousands of prisoners. The scope of such systematic dehumanization. The reality of whole families, neighborhoods, and towns stripped of their possessions and hauled off like cattle, only to be beaten down once more and worked to death.