The camp's purpose was enlarged to include forced labor and housed ordinary German and Austrian criminals. Eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded were sent here. It became a death camp for Jews. Countless thousands of Jews died were executed or died of starvation, disease or overwork. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps. These were mostly work camps or "Arbeitskommandos," and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The camps were liberated by U.S. forces in the spring of 1945.