Why did Himmler invent the gas chambers when murder by shooting was just as effective? Was it because..?

Question

... shooting 'emotionally affected' the Einsatzgruppen (who had to shoot the Jews)?
And was it Himmler who came up with this idea?

Answer 1

I can't say for certain whether or not the gas chambers were the hideously deformed brainchild of Himmler or not, but I'd feel safe saying that he had a hand in it it.

All those who mentioned bullets and the war effort are certainly on the right track, since bullets were relatively expensive and could be put to better use in defending the Fatherland as opposed to "wasting" them on political prisoners, slave labor, or just "undesirables."

And, yes, the emotional toll on the Einsatzgruppen did indeed play a part in all of this, too. Not necessarily a large part, but a part nonetheless.

I suppose even the Nazis realized that actually seeing the results of the shooting--especially that of women and children, who were traditionally considered noncombatants in Western warfare--would take a psychological toll on the average soldier.

After all, the people he was shooting were unarmed and posed no physical threat to him, and I'm sure that there were times that the members of these squads must have thought of their own loved ones--parents, siblings, wives, children--and that sort of carnage would take a toll pretty quickly.

Answer 2

The answer is obvious?! Shooting kills one, maybe two people at a time. However, the gas chambers killed thousands each time, and could be used up to 5 times a day. Also, the Zyklon B required to create the gas could be easily and cheaply bought, much cheaper than ammunition. Therefore, not only could more people be killed in this way, it was cheaper than shooting them anyway. The Einsatzgruppen liked killing the Jews anyway, very few were emotionally affected, as they believed theyre were doing the right thing anyway. And no, Himmler did not invent the gas chambers, Rudolph Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, used many other leading Nazis, Adolf Eichmann, as well as leading generals to invent the chambers, although Himmler oversaw it.

Answer 3

Like just about everybody else said, partly to save ammunition.
I think the two major reasons for the gas chambers were to test Zyklon B *at first* and to make the killing of more Jews even more efficient. When told that they were going to "take a shower" people put up a lot less fuss. And they were able to pack a whole lot of people into those showers. So many, in fact, that it didn't take long for them to figure out that they could kill them just by packing them in there so tight that they suffocated. No need to use the gas every time. *Read "Treblinka" and you can get more details from that*.
As for using the gas to save on the emotional effects of the Einsatzgruppen, well, look at how many people they managed to kill before the gas chambers came into being. They didn't seem so hampered by emotion that they couldn't do their jobs.

Answer 4

The emotional effect, and it is very well documented, on the German soldiers was not the only reason Gas was developed. in Simplest terms it was economics and logistical issues.

There is the old military adage that bullets cost money. To implement mass gunfire executions on the scale desires by the final solution people, Germany would have had to quadruple the manufacture of munitions. By the ending period of the war, their industrial infrastructure was in shambles. They would not have been able to produce it by the height of the exterminations.

The other is a simple logistical factor. Gassing was more efficient in time and labor. The gas could do more people at a single controlled time. This is the curse of the German efficiency, I suppose.

Answer 5

German soldiers were finding it hard to shoot masses of women and children and often had to employ local collaborators in places such as Lithuania and Latvia.
When the Nazis realised the huge numbers they had to kill they knew they could not spare the manpower so the extermination camps and the gas chambers were authorised at the Wannsee conference in 1942

Answer 6

you can kill maybe one to three people with one bullet, this is obviously really up close, the last person might be just severely wounded, what is needed just for that single shot? gunpowder, the bullet itself, casing, the gun, various parts of the gun, and after all that work, you got maybe three people, compare to one canister of poison gas, lock a large group, we'll say of a 100, in an air tight room, drop in one canister, wait, all are dead, efficiency won out in the end, thankfully not the Nazi's

Answer 7

It's probably a two part thing. One part was to conserve bullets for the war like the other people are saying. Another reason would be because it would be considered easier to cram a whole bunch of people in a room and kill them all at once.

Answer 8

The mass numbers of executions made using bullits too expensive,and took resources away from the actual war front germany had going.They needed an efficient way to excute masses....George

Answer 9

Because the generals wanted to save bullets for the war.

Answer 10

When people were shot, they were very often not killed instantly. With the shootings, mass graves were necessary, and that was messy. With the big death factories, it was easier to kill more and dispose of the bodies in the ovens.