Why did the Nazis use gas chambers?

ileeka

So you think bullets would have been more humane??? Do you think there is a humane way to commit genocide? This is a serious answer!

voluptuous

Mass Murder - humane wasn't in their vocabulary

ssbn598

Bullets are expensive. Gassing is more efficient than a bullet. They initially tried shooting them, but quickly found that they needed a "better" way.

Humane Nazis? Ha! An oxymoron.

bushfan88

why would you ever think that the nazi's would be humane????...using gas chambers was quick effective and many were killed all at once.

Jude

The Nazis were not concerned with being humane, as far as they were concerned, mass extermination was the only thing they were interested in.

No, we cannot and should not forget, but neither should we obsess about the Nazis. Dreaful atrocities have been commited since, in Bosnia and Rwanda among other places.

tucksie

So they could murder masses of people cheaply and at the same time, remember it took only a small pill to kill hundreds.

Dom

From what I understand it was too time consuming and it had such an effect on the people carrying out the attrocities that this method was stopped.
An excellent book to read is 'The Nazis and the Final Solution' by Laurence Rees as it's so well written and researched. There was also a documentary series made by the BBC on it.

max_sterling003

I really have no idea. I guess its because its the most cost effective and least messy method for ethnic cleansing when dealing with a large amount of people.

amanda c

Cheaper even than Zyclon B, was hard labour in arctic conditions on a food ration of 800 calories a day. That was Stalin's chosen method of exterminating his tens of millions.

Avondrow

They reckoned it was more humane to use gas. Humane, that is, for their troops! Seriously, they were concerned about the psychological strain of actually having to shoot unarmed people.
If you read the autobiography of Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, they experimented with several different methods, including vans with the exhaust feeding back inside, before settling for zyclon B.

Rattler M

There are a lot of points being given out in this question - may I have a spare one if you are still generous?

shoot.bang

killing them in mass quantities. Cheaper that way...

Miguel Fossa

Hola a todos los usuarios de yahoo respuesta.

Les deseÃ³ toda la suerte del mundo en su intento de obtener la mayor cantidad de puntos.

Hi for all the users than yahoo Answers. Les deseÃ³ all the luck of the world in her intent than obtain the larger quantity than stops.

Ollie

maybe because it's easier to lead people to a chamber and close the door, rather than line them up and take aim? easier for the mentality of the German soldier who had to follow those kind of orders. Alternatively, it was simply easier, and maybe cheaper to put 25-50people in one big room, and then just turn the "gas" on? (cheaper than bullets i mean).

Yak Rider

This is the real answer.... It was more humane on the soldiers doing the executions and it was cheaper and quicker.

Dave h's post is right.

Chariotmender

They did use bullets but found it to be too time consuming and in-effective when related to the numbers involved, hence they determined on the use of gas chambers.

Its not me Its u

Only one reason, expediency and mass extermination at a high volume....the bullet was too slow. At the Auwswitz-Berkinau complex, the SS were topping out at 2,600 per day. The pharmacy conglomerate was delivering 4 1/2 tons of Zclon-B per month to keep up with the demand.

genghis41f

The Nazi's weren't a very humane group of "people" (In the broadest sense of the word).

They probably decided on the gas as it was cheap to manufacture and it was a clean way of killing. No blood and guts to clean up. The bullets were needed for the war effort too, not wasted on this. Killing people en masse with bullets would take a lot of time, too.

desiderio

In spite of the apparent brutality of this question, and the controversy I no doubt skipped over in not reading all of the previous 36 answers, this is kind a good question.

You would think, wouldn't you, that a well placed bullet would be more humane in the "don't make them suffer" ideal, but for one, the people who ran the camps didn't really have that ideal. We know that just from the survivors that were liberated, the condition they were in, without even having to hear their stories or discover the incinerators. Not to mention the good point that bullets would be expensive when you're eliminating 12 million people, and being such a large war, the ammo was "better" used elsewhere. And I would imagine that the bowel/bladder mess would be bad enough without the addition of blood. Sure, you might ask, after all that, what's a little blood? But even if the person was starved and dehydrated with nothing to release, they still had some blood in them. Since the point was efficiency, gas was probably the way to go. Kind of like making people dig a ditch, then tying them together in pairs on the edge of that ditch (or body of water, whatever the case be) and only shooting one of the pair in order to save ammunition. It's gruesome, but when you're on a budget, it unfortunately works.

The Mechanic

Nazis Humane , they were not even human, no human being would have done what they did and live with himself

srracvuee

economy and convenience as ordered by Himmler the brave man who was physically sick when watching an execution by gun to back of head when the brain splashed on to his uniform

Vaz

I think it may have seemed to be the best way to them to carry out mass murder sadly. Herd the people in and kill them all in one action. Sick, sick, sick people.

liberal democratic republican

Being humane wasn't an issue. Most of the bullets were sent to the soldiers at the front. It was considered more "efficient" to use gas. The gassing rooms were made to look like community showers. The prisoners were told that they had to shower and get de-loused. The prisoners removed their clothing and entered the "showers", the doors were sealed and the gas was released through the "shower heads". Other prisoners were sent in to remove the bodies and then go through the personal effects for usable items.

Pete

Fast, and on a large scale, would have been massive high-energy neutron radiation. I mean, I'd do that nowadays.

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