A New Method of Mass Extermination
A mobile gas chamber.
The first record of the use of gas tanks took place in December of 1939 by the Nazis when an SS Sonderkommando used carbon monoxide to kill Polish mental patients. The Nazis believed that the use of gas to exterminate large numbers of people in a single setting was one of the most efficient ways of extermination. The Nazis used both mobile and stationary gas chambers throughout the beginning of the Holocaust. As the years went on however, they realized that it would be more efficient to just use the stationary gas chambers as they were less expensive, as well as more efficient as you could fit more people into a single space. A total of about twenty mobile gas chambers were constructed since they were first introduced in December of 1941. These chambers were able to kill between forty and sixty people at a time, depending on the size of the truck. In February of 1942, the first stationary gas chambers that were to help facilitate the “Final Solution of the Jewish question” were set up at Belac. These gas chambers were now preferred over the mobile gas chambers as they were less expensive and did not require special supplies to build.
The first gas chambers used carbon monoxide to kill its victims, but slowly progressed to another form of gas; Zyklon B, which was much more powerful and could do the job of killing these innocent people much more quickly. In just the ten gas chambers of Treblinka, two thousand, five hundred people could be gassed and put to death in just one hour. Extermination camps were always either expanding their existing gas chambers or building new ones so that they could exterminate more people in a shorter period of time. In order to squeeze more people into a chamber, they would be forced to enter with their arms raised. To make matters worse, babies and small children were then thrown on top of the mass of people so they too did not take up much needed space in the gas chamber on the floor. Gas chambers were a very destructive tool that took the lives of millions throughout the entire duration of the Holocaust.
The first gas chambers used carbon monoxide to kill its victims, but slowly progressed to another form of gas; Zyklon B, which was much more powerful and could do the job of killing these innocent people much more quickly. In just the ten gas chambers of Treblinka, two thousand, five hundred people could be gassed and put to death in just one hour. Extermination camps were always either expanding their existing gas chambers or building new ones so that they could exterminate more people in a shorter period of time. In order to squeeze more people into a chamber, they would be forced to enter with their arms raised. To make matters worse, babies and small children were then thrown on top of the mass of people so they too did not take up much needed space in the gas chamber on the floor. Gas chambers were a very destructive tool that took the lives of millions throughout the entire duration of the Holocaust.