First off, I hope this question is not too offensive. Discussing technicalities of a genocide will certainly disgust some. I am in no way trying to condone nazi crimes. I am also not sure whether it makes sense to search for rational thought in genocide. Here goes anyway:

Nazi death camps used shower heads to introduce a gas into the gas chambers, thereby killing people. The gas used was Zyklon-B, an industrial product produced by a single supplier, and likely relatively expensive. It also meant that the gas chambers had to be aerated for a number of minutes before soldiers or forced laborers could enter the gas chambers to drag out the corpses.

Why didn’t they simply use CO2? It’s a byproduct of basically any fire. It’s cheap and could have been produced on-site trivially. It’s also part of normal air and only toxic in high concentrations, likely meaning less danger to soldiers.

  • @lemmylommy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    131 year ago

    They did not only use Zyklon B. They also used carbon monoxide from bottles and engine exhaust. But they considered Zyklon B more effective, especially the commandant of Auschwitz. They could just drop the pellets into the chamber, no need to handle large bottles, keep a hose connected, run an engine etc.

    This is pure speculation, but I can also imagine that using a pesticide to exterminate Jews and their various other enemies/victims would appeal to Nazis.