Needle
In August 1941, the Germans began in Auschwitz the use of the “needle,” or putting prisoners to death by intravenous injection of phenol. The method was mainly used to kill sick prisoners who, in the opinion of SS doctors, were unlikely to recover quickly. The murdering was done in the so‑called procedures room of one of the hospital blocks of Auschwitz I. The doomed men were led in and told to sit on a stool. Then a prisoner functionary behind them pulled their arms back and an SS orderly plunged a needle directly into the heart muscle. Death followed within a few seconds.
Camp resistance movement documents show that in the late 1942, 2,467 prisoners were killed in this way in four months. Phenol injections were also used to kill Polish children from the Zamość region and pregnant Jewish prisoners. Over time the application of this method was limited because, once the gas chambers went into operation, they became the most common place for murdering sick prisoners after selections in the camp hospitals.