On April 26, 1933, the Nazi secret police force known as the Gestapo was founded. No strangers to torturing and executing people, firing squads, hanging by piano wire, and death by torture were Gestapo favorites. We continue what we started on April 25 when we told you about 10 ways people have been executed with no regard for humanity, intentional or unintentional. Here are 10 more ways people have executed other people and were not so nice about it.
Digging Deeper
10. Poison Gas.
Used today and recently for individual executions, the condemned have been known to choke and sputter in agony during their supposed humane execution. Used for mass executions, especially by the Nazi’s before and during World War II, slow methods using carbon monoxide from engine exhaust were replaced by more efficient Zyklon-B, a concentrated pesticide. The notorious gas chambers of Nazi Germany were hellish places where victims would claw and scratch their fingernails off trying to escape the gas.
9. Falling.
It is not the fall that kills you, it is the hard landing. People have been thrown from lethal heights throughout history, whether from cliffs, towers or out of airplanes. A common misconception is that the victim will die or pass out (of what?) before hitting the ground, but that is wishful thinking.
