KILLING THROUGH PHENOL INJECTION

The prisoners usually feared to be sent to the prisoner's hospital because even slightly ill people had to count with being killed by a lethal injection, called "Abspritzen"..

"Abspritzen" meant the killing through a phenol injection of 10 ccm which was directly injected to the heart, the victims died immediately. In August 1941 this way of killing began. The phenol injections were usually given by the first aid men Josef Klehr and Herbert Scherpe and the instructed prisoners Alfred Stössel and Mieczyslaw Panszcyk. Adult inmates selected to be killed ("abgespritzt") and children had to register at block 20 in Auschwitz I. There, they were called up one by one and placed on a chair. Two other prisoners held the victim's hands, a third covered his eyes. Then Klehr pushed the needle into the heart and emptied the injection. Thus, 30 to 60 people died everyday.