After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Germany and the Soviet Union, Russian prisoners began to be released. However, because the German authorities wished to use them for forced labor for as long as possible, only few were initially allowed to leave the camp and a mass departure of Russian POWs did not take place until the German capitulation and the collapse of the German empire, after November 1918.[6] After the Germans abandoned the camp the facilities and infrastructure deteriorated, particularly the living quarters.[7] Some of the released Russian soldiers elected to stay in what became the newly reconstituted Poland, finding work in local agriculture or intermarrying with the local population.[8]