The continual expansion of KL Auschwitz meant that by the last phase of the war, the complex included several dozen affiliated camps. As the number of prisoners held in these camps increased, so too did the system of registering them. That was the reason that the camp authorities decided that they needed their own printing facilities. A group of prisoners had been employed at the Auschwitz printers since November 1940. In 1943 the printing shop was entrusted with the role of printing all official forms for the other camps