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The Nazis
used poison gas to murder millions of human beings whom they deemed
undesirable. One of several methods used was the gas van. Such vans
were first deployed in 1940 in the “Euthanasia” operation.
Hitler delegated the “Euthanasia” operation to Reichsleiter
Philip Bouhler, Dr. Karl Brandt, and several doctors of their
choice. The targets were several German population groups: the
mentally ill or retarded, the chronically ill, and criminals. At
first, the murders were carried out in fixed, sealed chambers, into
which carbon monoxide gas was pumped from metal canisters. In
addition, some were killed by lethal injections and by shooting. In
1940, an experiment using gas vans was conducted in Kochanowka, near
Lodz, in the murder of mentally ill children.
Between
70,000-100,000 people were murdered in “Euthanasia” operations.
Experts who became experienced with poison gas and mass murder in
this program were later employed between 1941 and 1942 in the
occupied eastern areas, where they engaged mainly in murdering Jews.
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