In 1940, Koch built an indoor sports arena, which cost over 250,000 reichsmarks (equal to about $62,500 at the time). She had stolen most of this money from prisoners at the camp. In 1941, Karl-Otto Koch was transferred to Lublin, where he helped create the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp. Ilse Koch stayed at Buchenwald until 24 August 1943. On that day, she and her husband were arrested. The Kochs were charged with embezzlement; stealing huge amounts of money and valuables from prisoners to make themselves rich; and murdering prisoners to keep them from talking about what the Kochs were doing.