During World War II the Germans established the Gross-Rosen concentration camp with around 100 subcamps in the region, in which around 125,000 people of various nationalities, among them mostly Jews, Poles and citizens of the Soviet Union, were imprisoned, and around 40,000 died. Also several German prisoner-of-war camps, including Stalag VIII-A, Stalag VIII-C, Stalag VIII-E, Stalag Luft III, Oflag VIII-B, Oflag VIII-F, with numerous forced labour subcamps were located in the region, as well as various subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 POW camp. POWs of various nationalities were held in those camps, including Poles, Frenchmen, Belgians, Britons, Italians, Canadians, Americans, Greeks, Yugoslavians, Russians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Norwegians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, etc. In the final stages of the war it was the site of several death marches perpetrated by Nazi Germany.