Throughout World War II, there were huge numbers of execution methods deployed inside occupied lands and within prisons.

From the gallows that dealt with war criminals at the end of the conflict to the execution polls in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, thousands of people met their end in terrible ways at the hands of their enemies.

But very few methods were as cold and as ruthless as neck shooting or ganicious as the Germans called it.

Neck shooting was a method which led to millions of people’s deaths.

Innocent civilians who had found themselves conquered.

Captured prisoners of war and persecuted people all suffered death by neckshot.

Even captured British female spies suffered this fate within the concentration camps.

It was a method aimed to dehumanize individual and to bring their lives to an instant end.

The Germans believed that the victim’s life was worth the measly cost of one bullet.

A bullet fired with precision into the neck that would bring their lives to an almost instant end.

This is why neck shooting execution was so horrific.

So what was neck shooting? Well, it was literally as simple as the name sounds.

Executioners, soldiers, or guards would deliver a single shot from a pistol or rifle into the neck of the victim.

And this would then cause instant death or very close to instant death.

It was often performed inside sites of incarceration such as prisons or inside concentration camps.

Within the camps, special facilities were created known as ginik shusen laga in which prisoners were led into rooms which looked like medical examination rooms similar to a doctor’s room.

In this was doctor’s medical equipment and specifically a height measuring device.

The victims were told they were going to have a routine examination and were told to stand with their back to the height measuring device so they could have their size recorded.

But behind this was a small hatch in which an executioner was stood primed with a gun and they then fired into the neck of the victim and they were then collapsed to the floor.

Concentration camp prisoners would then collect the bodies which were then burned inside sites such as Bookenvald.

Thousands were shot in this way in these mock facilities.

But out in the open during the war and inside occupied lands, the method was performed in the mud and on the ground.

People shot in this manner included captured Soviet female prisoners of war and soldiers on the Eastern Front and also commisars who had been ordered by Hitler to be shot immediately upon capture.

The Germans had been excused any reprisal for the shooting of these people, so were just free to take lives in this manner.

A pistol or small caliber weapon was placed at the base of the skull and this would then be fired through the brain stem.

Sometimes there was little or no noise too and attempts were made to drown out the sound of gunshots.

Now the method was different to a firing squad as it needed just a single sole executioner and his weapon and there was at times no need for official procedure or a firing squad.

Victims were often deceived into going to their deaths.

After being captured, they were told they were going to be rounded up for deportation to a new place where they would be resettled, but they would be led into a pit and then shot.

They would often lie down upon the corpses of those victims who had gone before them minutes before, and the executioner then placed his weapon on their necks whilst they were lying prone.

Some walked calmly to their deaths until they reached the pits and the psychological betrayal of next shooting was one of the most disturbing aspects of the terrible act.

It was practically extrajudicial murder and there were no judges present.

There was no trial and no witnesses at times and often no records.

Irons group of death squads would just report back to German high command that they had shot thousands and people simply vanished.

There will be mass graves today, in particular in Eastern Europe, which are undiscovered, and these hold the remains of thousands who suffered neck shooting and this fate.

The method was more brutal than formal military executions or hangings, as this was often signed off on by military officials and officers, and sometimes followed legal proceedings.

But the cold mechanical method led to one human being killed every few seconds, sometimes for hours at a time.

It ceased to resemble punishment and became mass slaughter and industrialized murder.

This would be repeated thousands of times per location and some sites such as Babiar would be the place where dozens of thousands of people suffered this fate.

For the Nazis, neck shooting was all about efficiency over humanity.

For them, a pistol bullet was cheaper to produce than rifle volleys used in a firing squad.

There was also no ammunition coordination or squad required.

Bodies could also fall or be pushed straight into mass graves, and the minimal noise allowed executions to take place very near to towns and large areas where people were living without necessarily alerting civilians.

It was a killing process built around speed, secrecy, and also cost control.

Human dignity was completely irrelevant.

It also avoided psychological impact and damage for soldiers who would usually find themselves inside of firing squads.

The typical firing squad required between six and 12 soldiers and there could be refusal or hesitation to participate and SS execution squads did later to report suffering with mental breakdowns and the strain of shooting many people.

Neck shooting required just one shooter and could be performed at extremely close range and it was easier for the shooter to disconnect from the practice as it was deemed a routine task.

Also, with the victim facing away from them, they did not have to look at their face and they would then just collapse into the pit before the executioner moved onto the next victim.

It would also be carried out in secret.

For example, 50 members of Stalagluff free, the prison of war camp, in which Allied airmen attempted to perform the great escape, found themselves driven out to secluded areas after being captured, such as forests.

They were then ordered out of the cars and were then shot through the neck.

Some bodies were buried where they fell.

Inside the camps, female British SOE spies also suffered this same fate and their remains were then reduced to ashes within the crerematoria within just minutes of their deaths happening.

Now, the Nazis preferred the use of neck shooting over gas or hanging because neck shooting was cheaper than creating gas chambers and it also required no construction or technical facilities being put up.

It could also be implemented immediately anywhere and fast killing could be performed.

Gas was later used to increase the killing capacity, reduce shooter trauma and remove personal contact with the victims.

But most people don’t realize that more victims during the Holocaust actually died by gunshot than gassing.

So to sum up, neck shooting was so horrifying because it relied on deception and betrayal and it also stripped victims of all their dignity.

Many were shot naked, being forced to take off all their clothes.

It also allowed for mass silent executions.

It was efficient, secret, cheap, and logistically simple.

And still today, there will be victims of next shooting who lie undisturbed inside of mass graves.

Their stories waiting to be told.

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