About 200 000 prisoners lived in the concentration camp, or its 49 subsidiary camps, and over 100 000 of them died. The huts and torture rooms evoke the suffering and death that reigned here from 1938 to 5 May 1945. Outside the heavy and oppressive enclosure are the memorials built by countries whose citizens perished here. Below the plateau is the Stairway to Death, leading to the quarry.