The work in the quarries – often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as – led to exceptionally high mortality rates. The food rations were limited, and during the 1940–1942 period, an average inmate weighed . It is estimated that the average energy content of food rations dropped from about a day during the 1940–1942 period, to between a day during the next period. In 1945 the energy content was even lower and did not exceed a day – less than a third of the energy needed by an average worker in heavy industry. The reduced rations led to the starvation of thousands of inmates.