At the start of May, Operation Bernhard was officially closed down and the prisoners were transported from the caves to the nearby Ebensee concentration camp. They were divided into three groups, and a truck was to make trips to and from the camp. An order had been issued that the prisoners were to be killed, but only once they were together at Ebensee. The truck delivered the first two groups to the camp, where the men were housed separately from the general camp population. On the third journey the vehicle broke down after it had picked up the final group of prisoners; the men in the last group were marched to the camp, which took two days. As the order had specified that the prisoners had to be killed together, the first two groups were kept safe to await their comrades. Because of the delay with the third journey and the close proximity of the advancing Allied army, on 5 May the first two groups were released from their isolation into the general population and their SS guards fled. That afternoon the third group arrived at the camp. When the guards learned what had happened to the first two groups, they also released their prisoners into the main prison population and fled. The Americans arrived the following day and liberated the camp.