 On Saturday 1 July 1944, Major Plagge entered the camp, with SS Oberscharfürhrer Richter at his side and made an informal speech as the camps Jewish prisoners gathered around him.Plagge announced that he and his men had been ordered to withdraw to the west, and that he had not been able to obtain permission to take the workers with the unit; however he reassured them that the prisoners were to be relocated by the SS on Monday July 3 and commented that they should not worry because they all knew that the SS was an organization devoted to the protection of refugees.With this covert warning, over half the camp's prisoners went into hiding before the SS death squads arrived on 3 July 1944.