During the Death March of the Holocaust many had died and suffered horrendous things while traveling by foot, SS authorities didnt want the prisoners to fall into enemy hands alive so they could share their stories to Allied and Soviet Liberators. They also thought they needed the prisoners to maintain production of Armaments wherever possible. Himmler, one of Hitlers leaders of the Nazi party, believed that they could use Jewish concentration camp pisoners as hostages to bargain for separate peace in the west that would guarantee the survival of the Nazi Regime. Later on prisoners had begun evacuating the camps and lead on death marches. Most of these evacuations were carried out by train, or in the case of German positions cut off in the Baltic states, they evacuated them by ships across the Baltic Sea. Most who didnt go by train or ship were on foot leaving the camps east and west, most killed if they didnt keep up the pace or collapsed while walking. Guards had strict orders to kill prisoners who could no longer walk or travel. When it became winter in 1944-1945, it was brutal, many had died from exposure and exhaustion while riding in open rail cars or the small crafts traveling over the Baltic Sea. They were also very mistreated by soldiers who shot hundreds if they collapsed, keep pace with others in the march or even disembark from trains and ships.