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Did Germany use gas chambers for legal executions?
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 5:18 pm
by Hektor
I'm surprised that this question doesn't seem to have come up yet. But did Germany ever use gas chambers for legal executions? Or is that only alleged for "Holocaust"-related killings and perhaps K4?
Re: Did Germany use gas chambers for legal executions?
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 5:37 pm
by Archie
I don't think so.
Gas chambers were used for executions in the US starting in the 1920s. The Last Gasp by Scott Christianson is the standard source on this for the details. But I don't think there was anything like this in Germany.
Re: Did Germany use gas chambers for legal executions?
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 4:37 am
by Wetzelrad
Cameron Munro says:
It's also interesting to note no European country apart from one adopts poison gas as the method of capital punishment. That one country is Lithuania who adopted it in the 1930s. No other country adopts it. In fact the Europeans react with shock and horror at the barbarity of the Americans using poison gas for capital punishment. Why? The most likely answer is chemical weapons during used during this first world war which came as a great shock to the world that they're being used and the barbaric effect on people. So obviously the Americans were slightly less exposed to that than the British, the French, the Germans. When the Britain France and Germany the Americans were seen as barbaric for using poison gas.
https://youtu.be/EW-Lk0GNwc8?t=3844
I'm content to take his word for it. The extreme rarity of this method of execution in world history and especially around Germany makes it less plausible for the Holocaust.
Prior to the war, Germany carried out capital punishment by firing squad, beheading by ax, beheading by guillotine, and possibly hanging. The idea that Germans opposed gassing because of WWI makes sense. The idea that Germans implemented gassing to be more humane than other methods does not.
Re: Did Germany use gas chambers for legal executions?
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 10:44 am
by Hektor
Archie wrote: ↑Mon Nov 17, 2025 5:37 pm
I don't think so.
Gas chambers were used for executions in the US starting in the 1920s. The Last Gasp by Scott Christianson is the standard source on this for the details. But I don't think there was anything like this in Germany.
I tried Chatgpt with this... and at first it alleged it, but when I asked for one real life example it admitted there were none. Executions were done by beheading, hanging, firing squad it seems.
So homicidal gassings in concentration camps lack a precedent for Germany. There was however the association made in Allied countries between Germany and gas warfare. As Zyklon B was indeed used in concentration camps, this made it ideal for a claimed murder weapon. And fortunately for the Holocaust industry most folks are ignorant what the practical purpose of Zyklon B actually was. They are also ignorant that this was actually more difficult to produce and handle than other lethal gasses.