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Notes -
Can you point out where exactly the horror story touched you?
Sorry about the joke, but seriously, where exactly did you hear them or read about them? Do you remember?
I ask because I don't trust my own memories on this topic.
One time was from my history teacher (the soap / lampshade stuff).
I also remember being showed a film in one of the death camp museums, where the Nazis would throw people to get into an airtight van, and connect the exhaust to the passenger compartment. I don't know of this was officially deboonked, but since we're on the subject, it strikes me as an insanely inefficient method of execution.
Those are two instances that I clearly remember, but there was also the blur of documantaries, school trips, and books, that I can't vouch for.
Carbon Monoxide vans were used to gas disabled people before the Holocaust proper got going. They were indeed an inefficient method of execution, but they were quiet and the Nazis cared about discretion. (There is a reason why there were no death camps in pre-war German territory).
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