The living conditions in the barracks got worse from month to month. When the camp opened, about 500 prisoners lived in each barrack, but their number increased to 1.000 as time went by. The blocks were equipped with triple level bunks. The prisoners were always suffering from the dust caused by the mattresses which were filled with a combination of straw and sawdust, and also from the ever increasing lack of space. Then there were the lice which could not be extirpated due to the totally inefficient hygienic facilities. "The bed also served as the place where to keep clothes and shoes. There the prisoners also received their daily starvation ration of food. The barracks had neither wardrobes nor eating tables." (1) In addition to the horrible living conditions there was also the very poor clothing; it was strictly forbidden to own additional clothing that had not been issued officially. The prisoners were cold also because of their malnutrition, and the wet and cold climate of the Ebensee region caused numerous illnesses.

The portions of food were so small that the prisoners were always hungry. When a prisoner could not obtain additional food, he would, without any doubt, soon face death through hunger, or through his malnutrition he would be the victim of the resulting deseases.

"In the morning 1/4 liter of coffee of undefinable color; for lunch 3/4 liter of water with the remainders of spoiled potatoes; for dinner 1/2 liter of water with a touch of grease which was called 'Goulash', and one loaf of bread weighing 1 kg (2.2 lbs) which had to be divided among 6 men. Once in a blue moon we would find a very good potato or a little 'oats' in this mixture which would be a real feast for us." (2)

Not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, the food was absolutely inadequate and caused a lot of illnesses. The official rations assigned to the prisoners were never issued. In February 1944, for example, the prisoners did not receive their bread rations for an entire week. The best chances to get additional food had the "prominent" prisoners, that is those prisoners who had jobs in the "self administration of the camp". The prisoners who had such jobs did not only have the opportunity to take rations for themselves that were the property of other prisoners, but also could "organize" food by working together with the work details working outside the camp and by cooperating with individual SS men.

The smuggling of food and other items, e.g. pieces of coal for heating the barracks, threads for repairing the clothes and additional clothing, was undertaken with the greatest risks. The work details coming back from work were body-searched every day, and prisoners were frequently caught through this procedure.

The run of the day depended on what kind of work was needed. Every morning the entire camp population (except those who were in hospital) had to stand for the roll call. Then the different work details gathered and went off to work. The working conditions in these work details were all different. Those who worked inside the camp (barrack service, cooks, potato peelers, bakers, carpenters, tailors, electricians, that is to say all those who granted the maintenance of the camp's infrastructure) were privileged compared to the prisoners who had to work outside the camp: their work was not that exhausting, they were protected from the weather and they often had the chance to "organize" additional food. The prisoners who were working in small details outside the camp had much a rougher life. In addition to having to do heavy work, they did not only have to march a long distance in order to get to their working sites and then had to cover the same distance going back, but they also had far less opportunities to obtain additional food. The worst work detail was the "quarry", the tunnels of Ebensee where most of the prisoners were working. The available documents show that the SS instituted a mixed system of 11 hour and 8 hour shifts. There was a "dayshift" and a "nightshift" which lasted 11 hours each while other details, the ones which were working in the tunnels, had three 8 hour shifts. Normally every other Sunday was a workday so that the prisoners were working up to 77 hours a week!

The construction of the tunnels in Ebensee was done by companies, most of which still are active today. They all used prisoners: Dywidag, Hinteregger und Fischer, Stuag, Fohmann, Holzmann und Polensky, Wiener Brückenbau, Dr. Müller, Heckmann und Langen, Universale Bau AG., Rella & Co., Hofmann und Maculan, Walther, Grossdeutsche Schachtbau, Fröhlich und Klüpfel, H. Koppers, Siemens Schuckert, Siemens Bauunion, Beton und Monierbau, Ferrobetonit, Latzel und Kutscha, Swietelsky, Brandl, Roth, Herbsthofer. (3) The driving forth of the tunnels and all the miners'work was done by the company "Deutsche Bergwerks- und Hüttenbaugesellschaft" (DBHG). The companies themselves provided the "masters" who supervised the work of the prisoners.

The number of prisoners who were requisitioned by the companies was usually higher than the one of those who were able to work. "The companies were not satisfied to get only those who were able to work, but also wanted that those who were not able to work because of being ill still were ordered to go to work." (4) The SS wanted to please the companies as much as they could and provided them with as many workers as possible regardless of how many deaths this might cause.

Every German civilian worker supervised several concentration camp prisoners. Much depended on the civilian workers. They determined the working speed, they had an influence on the behavior of the Kapos and the SS, they were able to provide the prisoners with additional food. The behavior of the more than 1.000 German and Austrian civilian workers varied greatly. They were employees of the construction companies. During 1944 they were joined by several hundred divisional NCOs of the German navy who were responsible for the installation of the refinery in the tunnels. Later in the spring of 1945 there arrived additional 25-30 employees of the "Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG."

"They were German or Austrian masters who were as severe as the SS, very severe or very brutal; yet there were some among them who brought some food from home or helped the prisoners otherwise." (5)

Systematic terror that was used in order to increase the work output is a frequent subject in the reports of surviving prisoners. This is the report of a French prisoner:

"Around June 1944 Ganz went for his round in the tunnel construction site when he noticed a Pole from Cracow who - in his opinion - was not working hard enough. Ganz told the Polish Kapo that he should bring this Polish prisoner before him after the evening roll call. Ganz had the prisoner's hands tied to his back and hanged him up in such a way that he was hanging about 10 cm above the ground.[...]During the night the block leader of his block had him untied. On the following day the prisoner was sent back to his work detail by Ganz where he was forced to push lorries although his hands and arms were totally destroyed. About 6 weeks later this prisoner died in hospital."

In addition to the civilian workers and the SS there were a few Kapos who came from among the prisoners, had been placed in their jobs by the SS and were assigned the job of guarding the great mass of prisoners. In the work details which the Kapos controlled, they abused their power unscrupulously. As long as they did so in order to increase the work output of the prisoners, they did not have to fear that the SS would reduce their powers and privileges. The prisoners were in a permanent state of utter exhaustion. "When there was a break, one was happy," reports the Czechoslovakian Victor Lederer who was forced to work in the tunnels himself, "one lay down immediately and took a rest." (6) Not only were the prisoners permanently forced to work faster, but also all the security measures were totally neglected during the construction of the tunnels, because the facilities should be finished as fast as possible, and partly the resources were missing, too. It was easier to replace one prisoner by another one. Drahomír Bárta noted the following events in his diary:

"August 17, 1944. Horror in the morning - there is a rumor that 20 comrades were poisoned in the "quarry". However, we found out that the master and some of the civilians had driven a number of civilians into the tunnel after an explosion, and they were slightly intoxicated by the smoke of the TNT. Now they are all in hospital, and perhaps they will stay alive. - Over and over again comrades are carried into the hospital or brought into the camp on top of carts with serious and very severe injuries. Often 5-10 of them per day. One got a stone on his head, another one's foot got caught between lorries, others were overrun by them. Beatings by the civilians." (7)

After their work was done, the prisoners still had to endure the march back into the camp and the roll call. In the evening and at night the possibilities for resting were limited, too. Worst, though, was the situation of those prisoners who had to work in the tunnels during the night shift; they had hardly any rest at all.