The isolation of the hospital was a response to the infectious diseases, such as typhus and tuberculosis, that spread through the camp in epidemics.
The hospital was outfitted in a way that mimicked the operations of a normal hospital. Inmate functionaries worked as "inmate doctors" and "inmate nurses" in various clinics, a dental station, a clinic for tuberculosis, a surgical department, and a department of internal medicine. Sick inmates were only treated if there was a possibility of them soon returning to work. They were often given a very brief period of relief from work in infirmary beds occupied by two or three inmates. Those no longer fit to work were either sent to other concentration camps to die or shunted off into so-called "rest blocks" in the camp, where they were left to fend for themselves.
In general, the hospital was not a place of healing but dying. Consequently, the camp
Today, visitors pass only the remnants of the hospital barracks on the way to the crematorium.