There was an execution method deployed by the SS and the death squads throughout World War II which was used to take the lives of millions of people throughout the conflict in huge mass graves.

Thousands of people found themselves forced to stand on the corpses of those who had gone before them.

As an executioner stood behind them and then ordered them to lay down.

Once face down, the executioner fired one single bullet, one soul bullet into the neck of the victim.

That was truly what the Nazis believed the life of those who they persecuted was worth a single bullet.

This execution used was neck shooting and it was deployed by firing squads who also stood on the edge of pits and also inside the concentration camps as special facilities were created for neck shooting executions which were aimed to trick the victim into believing they were getting a medical exam.

But instead of a doctor, they received an executioner instead.

This is the dark and twisted reason why the SS used neck shooting execution.

Ginchus or neckshot was an execution method which was used mostly by the Nazis and the Germans to take the lives of those who they deemed to be undesirable and unworthy of life.

It was relatively straightforward in its delivery.

An executioner would deliver a single shot to the neck of the victim aimed at bringing about instant death.

It was used on the battlefields on mass.

The Nazis and Hitler had issued a number of illegal orders such as the commisar order.

And in this Hitler stated that any prisoner of war with political links to communism and political organizations should be executed by neck shooting.

This led to thousands of Soviet prisoners being shot in the field immediately after their capture.

This was the fate that also encountered female soldiers who fought on the Eastern Front for the Red Army as this was also encouraged by senior Nazi commanders.

As mentioned, the next shot would be administered inside of usually a mass execution pit.

Einsteat’s group and executioners, those Nazi death squads who followed the advances of the German army, would round up civilians in local areas and then force the first ones to dig the huge pit.

This would become their grave.

And these first victims were then ordered to lay down in the dirt and they were then approached by the executioner who fired his pistol into the back of the neck.

Often execution squads were stood on the edge of the pits, but it was found that using large squads of executioners was somewhat more costly and less effective as often the victims were not instantly killed as there was a degree of accuracy required to bring about instant death.

Inside of the concentration camps, fake medical facilities known as neck shooting facilities were used inside camps such as Bookham.

Specifically inside Bookham, the stables were converted to execute mostly Soviet prisoners of war through neck shooting.

The next shooting facilities were disguised as medical inspection rooms or doctor’s rooms, similar to what you would see today if you visited a doctor.

Inside these chambers was fake medical equipment, including a height measuring device built into the wall, but this was never used to measure heights.

The Soviet prisoners of war were placed in front of the measuring device, but then behind them, they didn’t realize there was a small hatch.

Facing away from this, the executioner, an SS guard of the camp, would place his pistol through the hatch and then fire.

Even the floor of these chambers was painted brown to conceal the blood for the next victim, who would then come through the door.

The prisoners at Bookenvald were brought for their immediate executions and their arrivals nor their deaths were recorded in the official camp records.

But it’s estimated that specifically within these rooms at Bookenvald, 8,000 people, mostly Soviet prisoners of war, died within the next shooting facility.

But why specifically was this execution method used? At the core of the SS’s practice was the Nazi belief that certain groups of people were biologically subhuman and therefore outside moral consideration.

Of course, the SS were the most ideologically devoted and the most virulent Nazi men in society.

They had a worldview that killing was not a crime or a tragedy, but it was in fact a necessary act for the better of the Reich, almost as if they were cleansing Europe.

Neck shooting embodied this ideology and belief.

It reduced killing to a mechanized and industrial procedure and it also avoided prolonged interaction and visible suffering.

But of course there was no consideration for the victim at all.

The Nazis wanted to kill as many people as quickly as they could.

It also framed death as somewhat of an impersonal outcome and not a moral choice.

And this aligned with the SS’s self-image as disciplined and rational enforcers of the Nazi racial policy rather than brutal executioners.

On the Eastern Front, especially following the invasion of the Soviet Union known as Operation Barbarasa, the SS killing units massacred millions in this manner, and it was used to eliminate immediately perceived enemies or threats.

It was a quick and efficient method, and a shot to the base of the school caused instant death, and large numbers of people were shot and killed rapidly with minimal ammunition.

It also reduced resistance and chaos.

Victims often collapsed instantly, and this also prevented panic or flight that could disrupt the execution procedure.

In the field, the firing from behind the head avoided eye contact between the executioner and victim.

SS reports and later testimony from executioners and also witnesses said that this was important for maintaining the discipline of the executioners and it was grimly said to have been an effective way of distancing the shooter from the act of killing.

Victims were typically shot at the edge of ravines or in large pits in the field, meaning that the bodies would fall directly into the mass graves or could just be left where they fell.

Through this way, it allowed 33,000 victims to be murdered in just two days in September 1941 at Babiar with neck shooting, the method of execution.

Within the concentration camps, neck shooting was used for all sorts of prisoners from those accused of resistance or escape to political prisoners and hostages and also those who were deemed unfit for forced labor or work.

The method suited the conditions of the camp for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it could be a relatively quiet method.