Ebensee concentration camp was established on 18 November 1943 as the outer commando of the Mauthausen concentration camp. The camp was given the cryptonyms "Zement", "Kalk", "Solvay" and "Kalksteinbergwerk". The establishment of the camp and the decision to use prison labour to excavate the adit was linked to plans to move V2 rocket production from Peenemünde to Austria. However, in the end, the finished parts of the adit were used for the production of motor fuel (adit A) and for the manufacture of tank and truck engine parts for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch- und Nibelungenwerke works (adit B). Over a period of about 16 months, a total of 7.6 kilometres of underground passageways were constructed using prison labour.

The camp housed prisoners of more than 20 different nationalities. Poles, Russians, Hungarians, French, Germans, Italians, Yugoslavs, Greeks and Czechs made up the largest national groups. The percentage of Jewish prisoners, deported from different countries, was 30%. During the period of the camp's existence, a total of 27,278 men were sent to Ebensee camp, according to the camp's count book. From January 1945 onwards, transports arriving from evacuated concentration camps led to catastrophic overcrowding and a complete collapse in supply. On 23 April 1945, the camp reached its highest number of prisoners - 18,509.

In the Ebensee camp, 8,200 prisoners lost their lives. During the first phase of the camp's existence, the SS transferred the corpses for incineration to the Mauthausen main camp. Many unfit and sick prisoners were also transported there, presumably to be killed. From the end of July 1944, the burning of corpses took place in a crematorium built in the camp. In April 1945. The SS established 2 mass graves on the camp grounds due to the high mortality rate. KL Ebensee was liberated on 6 May 1945 by American troops, after which date a further 750 people died - despite medical assistance in American field hospitals and the issue of supplies by the UNRRA.

From July 1945 until January 1946, the site of the former concentration camp was used by the US Army as a prisoner of war camp for German SS officers. It was then used as a camp for dipis, including those from Poland. In 1949, construction of a housing estate began on the site of the former camp. During the same period, an Italian woman, Hilda Lepetit - the widow of an Italian prisoner of KL Ebensee - initiated and financed the construction of a memorial on one of the grave fields. Subsequently, in 1952, the Upper Austrian state government established the now existing victims' cemetery around the grave fields and the Lepetit memorial. The exhumed remains of concentration camp victims from: Bad Goisern, Linz, Hörsching, Bad Ischl, St. Wolfgang, St. Konrad, St. Valentin, Altaussee, Schönau, Steyr. A total of 3,600 concentration camp victims are buried in mass and individual graves. Surrounding the grave fields are national monuments: Hungarian, German, Greek, Polish (2 monuments), Ukrainian, German, French, Czech, Yugoslav, Jewish, Spanish, Dutch, Azerbaijani, Soviet. The first Polish monument is located between the Greek and French monuments. On a high slab is engraved, behind wires, a suffering human figure with her hands raised. To her left and right are carved 3 crosses each. Above the figure is an inscription in Polish: "May our death return you freedom Poland". Below the figure is a red camp vignette with the letter P. The second Polish monument is located between the French and Italian monuments. It is made of dark grey stone. At the top of the monument is a triangular vignette with the letter P and below it a plaque with an inscription in Polish and German: "In tribute to the Poles murdered during the Nazi terror in the Ebensee concentration camp, Honour Their Memory! Council for the Protection of Monuments to Struggle and Martyrdom of the Polish People's Republic". The monument was made in Poland through the efforts of the crews of Polish companies working in Austria and the Polish community, with funding from the OPWiM Council. The monument was unveiled in May 1988. In addition, in 1975, through the efforts of the OPWiM Council, 6 stone crosses with swords, the so-called 'sword-crosses', were placed on the grave fields and engraved with the text in Polish and German: "In tribute to the Poles who fell victim to the Nazi terror. Honour Their Memory!" / "In Huldigung der polnischen Opfer des Hitlersterrors. Ihr andenken in Ehren!". At the back, next to the second entrance to the cemetery, there is a lapidarium with individual memorial plaques that were donated by the relatives of the victims. Among them are many Polish commemorations. On the other hand, at the main entrance, next to the chapel, there is a granite memorial plaque on a stone to the KL Ebensee prisoner Władysław Żuk, a post-war resident of the town and a community caretaker of the cemetery. In 2011, glass plaques with the names of deceased prisoners were placed by the fence on the right. The names are ordered by year of death and then alphabetically. No nationality is assigned. The list of names in a pdf file can be downloaded from the Ebensee Museum website: http://www.memorial-ebensee.at/content/stories/MuseumGedenkstaette/Opfernamen.pdf