©National Archives, Washington
In the first ten days of March 1945, 1,000 people died in the Little Camp alone. Because of a lack of coal deliveries, bodies piled up in the crematorium. This attracted rats, which spread throughout the rest of the camp. For this reason, the SS began to transport the dead away. Their destination was a number of naturally occurring sinkholes located approximately one kilometre from the camp, below the local Bismarck Tower. The inmate commando "Bismarck Tower" had to load the naked corpses onto lorry trailers, throw them into the pits, and provisionally cover them with earth and lime. This commando soon included 200 inmates.
After 1945, the sinkholes were initially turned into a commemorative grove of trees. A monumental memorial with a bell tower visible from far and wide was erected here in 1958.
