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Concept
Gas chamber
Summary
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
General Rochambeau developed a rudimentary method in 1803, during the Haitian Revolution, filling ships' cargo holds with sulfur dioxide to suffocate prisoners of war. The scale of these operations was brought to larger public attention in the book Napoleon's Crimes (2005), although the allegations of scale and sources were heavily questioned.
In America, the utilization of a gas chamber was first proposed by Allan McLane Hamilton to the state of Nevada. Since then, gas chambers have been used as a method of execution of condemned prisoners in the United States and continue to be a legal execution method in three states, seeing a possible, legislated reintroduction, although redundant in practice since the early 1990s.
Lithuania used gas chambers for civilian, penal use in the 1930s, with the last known execution carried out in 1940. The Soviet Union allegedly used the method to perform executions during the bloody Great Purge, including by use of gas vans. Prisoners were gassed on the way to the Butovo firing range, where the NKVD normally executed its prisoners by shooting them. None of these saw mass use, however, and were strictly for "criminal" purposes.
Most notably, during the Holocaust large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany from the late 1930s, as part of the Aktion T4, and later for its genocide program.
More recently, escapees from North Korea have alleged executions to have been performed by gas chamber in prison camps, often combined with medical experimentation.
Extermination camp#GassingsThe Holocaust#Extermination camps and Evidence and documentation for the Holocaust#Use of gas chambers
Nazi Germany made extensive use of various types of gas chambers for mass-murder during the Holocaust.
Official source
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Ontological neighbourhood
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