A gas van or gas wagon was a truck re-equipped as a mobile gas chamber. During World War II and the Holocaust, Nazi Germany developed and used gas vans on a large scale to kill inmates of asylums, Poles, Romani people, Jews, and prisoners in occupied Poland, Belarus, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and other regions of German-occupied Europe. One case of gas vans used by Soviet NKVD during the Great Purge was documented.
Burned-out Magirus-Deutz furniture mover van near Chełmno extermination camp, of the type used by the Nazis, with the exhaust fumes diverted into the sealed rear compartment where the victims were locked in. This particular van had not been modified, as explained by Office of the United States Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (1946), but gives a good idea about the process.
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.
Gas chamber at Majdanek concentration camp
Interior of Majdanek gas chamber, showing Prussian blue residue
The former gas chamber at New Mexico State Penitentiary, used only once in 1960 and later replaced by lethal injection.
