Given this, executions obviously took place at Sachsenhausen, especially of Soviet prisoners of war. During the earlier stages of the camp's existence the executions were done by placing the prisoner in a small room, often even with music playing, called the Genickschussbaracke and told they were to have their height and weight measured, but were instead shot in the back of the neck through a sliding door located behind the neck.[2] This was found to be far too time-consuming so they then trialled a trench, killing either by shooting or by hanging. While this more easily enabled group executions, it created too much initial panic among the prisoners, making them harder to control.