Arthur Nebe
Encyclopedia
SS
-Gruppenführer
Arthur Nebe (13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a member of the NSDAP (Nazi) party with card number 574,307. In July 1931, he joined the SS
and his membership number was 280,152. His early career included the Berlin position of Police Commissioner in the 1920s. In 1942–1943, he was the President of Interpol
which fell under the control of Nazi Germany during the Anschluss
in 1938. Nebe perpetrated mass murder in the Holocaust
, serving as commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe
B deployed in the Bezirk Bialystok
district (modern Belarus
) behind Army Group Centre
during the German invasion of the Soviet Union
. Nebe commanded the Kripo (Criminal Police) until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler
in July 1944.
, where he was wounded twice by gas
.
In 1920 Nebe joined the Berlin detective force
Kriminalpolizei
, or Kripo (literally, "Criminal Police", a similar organization to the United Kingdom
's Criminal Investigation Department
) and attained the rank of Police Commissioner in 1924. Nebe joined the Nazi party on 1 July 1931. He became a contributing member of the SS
on the same day. Nebe became the Nazis' liaison in the Berlin criminal police, with links to the SS group led by Kurt Daluege
. In early 1932 Nebe and other Nazi detectives formed the NS (National Socialist) Civil Service Society of the Berlin Police. Following the Nazi seizure of power, Daluege recommended Nebe, in April 1933 to be as Chief Executive of the State Police.
In October 1933 Nebe was ordered by Rudolf Diels
, then head of the Gestapo
, to arrange the liquidation of Hitler's rival Gregor Strasser
. This began the process of turning Nebe against the Nazis. In 1933 he came to know Hans Bernd Gisevius
, then an official in the Berlin Police Headquarters and Gisevius introduced him to Hans Oster
.
In July 1936, the Kriminalpolizei
(Kripo) became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich. It was merged, along with the Gestapo into the Sicherheitspolizei
(SiPo) or Security Police. At that point, Reinhard Heydrich
was in overall command of the SiPo (Gestapo and Kripo) and the SD. Nebe became an SS Gruppenführer
and was appointed head of the Kripo. As head of the Kripo, Nebe reported to Heydrich. His aversion to Heydrich and Himmler grew even though he continued to regularly lunch with them. On 27 September 1939, the SiPo was folded into the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA. The Kripo became Department V of the RSHA. Department V was also known as the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt (Reich Criminal Police Department or RKPA).
In 1938, Nebe joined forces with future fellow conspirator Dr. Karl Sack
(Judge Advocate-General of the Wehrmacht
) to spoil Himmler's plot against General Werner von Fritsch
. That same year, Hans Oster recruited Nebe into the conspiracy for the September 1938 coup attempt
, a plot to overthrow Hitler if he went to war with Czechoslovakia
over the Sudetenland
. Nebe supplied the conspirators with information regarding SS strength, logistics, and safehouses throughout the Berlin area.
, Heinrich Himmler
selected Nebe to command Einsatzgruppe B behind Army Group Center in the east. Nebe, with technical assistance of Albert Widmann
, experimented with several different methods as a means to kill patients:
Of his work in the east, historian Gerald Reitlinger
stated:
Foreseeing the crimes in which he would be involved, he tried to escape it by asking for a move to the International Police Commission but is said to have been persuaded by Ludwig Beck
and Hans Oster to accept the appointment, which would place him in a position where he could give them information on what was happening inside the SS and the Gestapo. He worked with Henning von Tresckow
and Fabian von Schlabrendorff
to reduce the atrocities committed, and often massaged the numbers reported to his superiors (including one claim that his task force was responsible for more than 45,000 killings).
He returned from Russia convinced that the war would end with the military defeat of Germany. In late 1942 after the Wannsee Conference
, Nebe informed his fellow conspirators of Himmler's plans for the so-called Final Solution
.
In March 1944, after the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III
POW
camp, Nebe was ordered by Heinrich Müller, Chief of the Gestapo
(Amt IV, or Department 4, of the RSHA
), to choose 50 of the 73 captured prisoners to be executed in the Stalag Luft III murders
. It is reputed that this selection caused Nebe distress.
Guenter Lewy, however, in his book The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, describes a different picture of Nebe. He describes how Nebe held a demonstration, on Himmler's request, of a mass-shooting of 100 people in Minsk. On learning it was distasteful to the troops, Himmler wanted Nebe to come up with something less distressing. Nebe decided to try experimenting by murdering Soviet mental patients first with explosives near Minsk and then with automobile exhaust at Mogilev.
Lewy also lays out other issues with the question of Nebe's innocence. Among other things:
against German dictator Adolf Hitler
. As part of the plot, Nebe was to lead a team of 12 policemen to kill Himmler but the signal never reached him. Historian Reitlinger characterized Nebe as "a very questionable member of the Resistance Circle at the time of the great bomb plot." After the failure of the assassination attempt he went into hiding on an island in the Wannsee
but was later arrested after a rejected mistress betrayed him. Nebe was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) and according to official records, was executed in Berlin at Plötzensee Prison
on 21 March 1945, by hanging with piano wire from a meat hook as that was the punishment ordered by Hitler – who wanted the July 20 conspirators to be "hanged like cattle".
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA.-SS rank:...
Arthur Nebe (13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a member of the NSDAP (Nazi) party with card number 574,307. In July 1931, he joined the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
and his membership number was 280,152. His early career included the Berlin position of Police Commissioner in the 1920s. In 1942–1943, he was the President of Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
which fell under the control of Nazi Germany during the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
in 1938. Nebe perpetrated mass murder in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, serving as commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
B deployed in the Bezirk Bialystok
Bezirk Bialystok
The Bezirk Bialystok , also Belostok was an administrative unit that existed during the World War II occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany...
district (modern Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
) behind Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
during the German invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
. Nebe commanded the Kripo (Criminal Police) until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in July 1944.
Biography
Born in Berlin in 1894, the son of an elementary school teacher, Nebe volunteered for military service in the 17th Pioneer Battalion during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, where he was wounded twice by gas
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
.
Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei
is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
, or Kripo (literally, "Criminal Police", a similar organization to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
) and attained the rank of Police Commissioner in 1924. Nebe joined the Nazi party on 1 July 1931. He became a contributing member of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
on the same day. Nebe became the Nazis' liaison in the Berlin criminal police, with links to the SS group led by Kurt Daluege
Kurt Daluege
Kurt Daluege was a German Nazi SS-Oberstgruppenführer and Generaloberst der Polizei as chief of the Ordnungspolizei and ruled the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia as Deputy Protector after Reinhard Heydrich's assassination.-Early life and career:Kurt Daluege, a son of a Prussian state official,...
. In early 1932 Nebe and other Nazi detectives formed the NS (National Socialist) Civil Service Society of the Berlin Police. Following the Nazi seizure of power, Daluege recommended Nebe, in April 1933 to be as Chief Executive of the State Police.
In October 1933 Nebe was ordered by Rudolf Diels
Rudolf Diels
Rudolf Diels was a German politician and SS-Oberführer. A protégé of Hermann Göring, Diels was in charge of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1934....
, then head of the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, to arrange the liquidation of Hitler's rival Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser was a politician of the National Socialist German Workers Party...
. This began the process of turning Nebe against the Nazis. In 1933 he came to know Hans Bernd Gisevius
Hans Bernd Gisevius
Hans Bernd Gisevius was a German diplomat and intelligence officer during World War II. A strong opponent of the Nazi regime, he served as a liaison in Zürich between Allen Dulles, station chief for the American OSS and the German Resistance forces in Germany.-Pre World War II:Gisevius was born...
, then an official in the Berlin Police Headquarters and Gisevius introduced him to Hans Oster
Hans Oster
Hans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
.
In July 1936, the Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei
is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
(Kripo) became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich. It was merged, along with the Gestapo into the Sicherheitspolizei
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
(SiPo) or Security Police. At that point, Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
was in overall command of the SiPo (Gestapo and Kripo) and the SD. Nebe became an SS Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA.-SS rank:...
and was appointed head of the Kripo. As head of the Kripo, Nebe reported to Heydrich. His aversion to Heydrich and Himmler grew even though he continued to regularly lunch with them. On 27 September 1939, the SiPo was folded into the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA. The Kripo became Department V of the RSHA. Department V was also known as the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt (Reich Criminal Police Department or RKPA).
In 1938, Nebe joined forces with future fellow conspirator Dr. Karl Sack
Karl Sack
Karl Sack was a German jurist and member of the resistance movement during World War II....
(Judge Advocate-General of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
) to spoil Himmler's plot against General Werner von Fritsch
Werner von Fritsch
Werner Thomas Ludwig Freiherr von Fritsch was a prominent Wehrmacht officer, member of the German High Command, and the second German general to be killed during World War II.-Early life:...
. That same year, Hans Oster recruited Nebe into the conspiracy for the September 1938 coup attempt
Oster Conspiracy
The Oster Conspiracy of 1938 was a proposed plan to assassinate German dictator Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, if Germany went to war with Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland.-Background:...
, a plot to overthrow Hitler if he went to war with Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
over the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
. Nebe supplied the conspirators with information regarding SS strength, logistics, and safehouses throughout the Berlin area.
Einsatzgruppe B
In 1941, just prior to Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
selected Nebe to command Einsatzgruppe B behind Army Group Center in the east. Nebe, with technical assistance of Albert Widmann
Albert Widmann
Albert Widmann was an SS officer and German chemist who worked for the Action T4 euthanasia program during the regime of Nazi Germany....
, experimented with several different methods as a means to kill patients:
Of his work in the east, historian Gerald Reitlinger
Gerald Reitlinger
Gerald Roberts Reitlinger was a scholar of the economics of art and of history, particularly the Holocaust...
stated:
Foreseeing the crimes in which he would be involved, he tried to escape it by asking for a move to the International Police Commission but is said to have been persuaded by Ludwig Beck
Ludwig Beck
Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II....
and Hans Oster to accept the appointment, which would place him in a position where he could give them information on what was happening inside the SS and the Gestapo. He worked with Henning von Tresckow
Henning von Tresckow
Generalmajor Herrmann Karl Robert "Henning" von Tresckow was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht who organized German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the German government...
and Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff , was a German jurist, soldier and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler....
to reduce the atrocities committed, and often massaged the numbers reported to his superiors (including one claim that his task force was responsible for more than 45,000 killings).
He returned from Russia convinced that the war would end with the military defeat of Germany. In late 1942 after the Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
, Nebe informed his fellow conspirators of Himmler's plans for the so-called Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
.
In March 1944, after the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan , southeast of Berlin...
POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp, Nebe was ordered by Heinrich Müller, Chief of the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
(Amt IV, or Department 4, of the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
), to choose 50 of the 73 captured prisoners to be executed in the Stalag Luft III murders
Stalag Luft III murders
The Stalag Luft III murders was a war crime perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the "Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. Of a total of 76 successful escapees, 73 were recaptured, mostly within days of...
. It is reputed that this selection caused Nebe distress.
Guenter Lewy, however, in his book The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, describes a different picture of Nebe. He describes how Nebe held a demonstration, on Himmler's request, of a mass-shooting of 100 people in Minsk. On learning it was distasteful to the troops, Himmler wanted Nebe to come up with something less distressing. Nebe decided to try experimenting by murdering Soviet mental patients first with explosives near Minsk and then with automobile exhaust at Mogilev.
Lewy also lays out other issues with the question of Nebe's innocence. Among other things:
- "As head of the RKPA," (the Kripo, or Criminal Police), "Nebe played a leading role in the formulation of Gypsy policy".
- Nebe told Adolf EichmannAdolf EichmannAdolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
to put Gypsies with the Jews on the transports to NiskoNiskoNisko is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland on the San River, with a population of 15,534 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009...
, in October 1939. - In September 1941, Nebe helped give a course named 'The Jewish Question with special attention to the partisan movement', which included the murdering of 32 people at Mogilev.
- In 1944, Nebe suggested to Grawitz that the Gypsies interned at Auschwitz would be good people to use for medical experiments at the Dachau concentration camp (Himmler had asked Grawitz for advice on the question).
- Bernd Wehner of the RKPA claimed Nebe was worried the Allies would punish him for his crimes, and that this was the only reason he joined the resistance.
1944 plot against Adolf Hitler
Arthur Nebe was involved in various plots including the 20 July 1944, bomb plotJuly 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
against German dictator Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. As part of the plot, Nebe was to lead a team of 12 policemen to kill Himmler but the signal never reached him. Historian Reitlinger characterized Nebe as "a very questionable member of the Resistance Circle at the time of the great bomb plot." After the failure of the assassination attempt he went into hiding on an island in the Wannsee
Wannsee
Wannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee , are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge...
but was later arrested after a rejected mistress betrayed him. Nebe was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) and according to official records, was executed in Berlin at Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
on 21 March 1945, by hanging with piano wire from a meat hook as that was the punishment ordered by Hitler – who wanted the July 20 conspirators to be "hanged like cattle".
Literature
- Hans-Bernd Gisevius: Wo ist Nebe? Erinnerungen an Hitlers Reichskriminaldirektor. Zuerich, Droemer, 1966
In fiction
- In the novel FatherlandFatherland (novel)Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain...
, set in an alternate history in which Germany has won the Second World War, Arthur Nebe is depicted as an SS-OberstgruppenführerOberstgruppenführerOberst-Gruppenführer was the highest commissioned SS rank with the exception of Reichsführer-SS, which was a special rank held by Heinrich Himmler...
, still commanding the Kriminalpolizei in the 1960s. - Nebe also plays a significant role in Philip KerrPhilip KerrPhilip Kerr is a British author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Bernie Gunther series of thrillers, and of children's books, particularly the Children of the Lamp series....
's Berlin Noir novels where he survives the war under an assumed name and is part of a secretive ex-SS members group called "the Org". - SS-Gruppenführer Nebe is mentioned in Jonathan LittellJonathan LittellJonathan Littell is a bilingual writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and United States and is a dual citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine years, leaving his job in 2001 in order to concentrate on writing...
's Les BienveillantesLes BienveillantesThe Kindly Ones is a historical novel written in French by American-born author Jonathan Littell. The 900-page book became a bestseller in France and was widely discussed in newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books and seminars...
as involved in early tests to use gas chamberGas chamberA gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s for mass killings of Jews.