Conditions were abysmal and people died of exposure and starvation there, as well as exhaustion since it was also affiliated with the granite mining operations of the German Earth and Stone Works, an SS company. Numerous forms of human experimentation occurred on healthy prisoners at the site as did euthanasia on those unable to work. Mehr sein als scheinen "Be more than you appear to be." – Motto applied to blades of uniform daggers worn by the Nationalpolitsche Erziehungsanstalten, or NPEA, the National Political Educational Establishment.