Why did Nazi Germany use gas chambers?

by doublewombatkombat

Wouldn't it be simpler/faster/cheaper to just shoot somebody in the back of the head? Even a guillotine would seem to be simpler.

DoctorWhoToYou

If you look at Treblinka it's estimated that between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were killed between July 1942 and October of 1943. So roughly 15 months.

If you do quick math, that's about 46,000 people executed a month, about 1500 a day.

But that isn't really how it worked. Treblinka I was a forced labor camp and Treblinka II was where the executions took place. There was a learning curve to the executions. As the process was streamlined, the rate of execution grew to 12,000-15,000 people a day.

A train car with 3,000 people could be processed in about an hour and a half. A guillotine couldn't keep that rate. Arms, ammunition and other raw materials along with personnel were being funneled to the eastern and western front.

The Smithsonian Channel has a documentary called Treblinka: Hitler's killing machine that explains the camp's layout and processes. On a personal note, the documentary is a pretty emotional watch.