Educational purpose only. This post documents historical events related to World War II and condemns the Nazi regime, war crimes, and all totalitarian ideologies. We do not glorify violence or hate.
The “Needle” Execution Method at Auschwitz: Phenol Injections as Medical Murder
Among the many horrors of Auschwitz, the phenol injection—known in camp slang as szpilowanie (“skewering”) or abgespritzt (“injected off”)—stands as one of the most chilling perversions of medicine . This method, involving lethal injections of concentrated phenol directly into the heart, transformed the camp hospital from a place of healing into a site of systematic murder.
1. The Origin and Development of the Method
Phenol injections were introduced in Auschwitz in 1941 as part of the Nazis’ broader “euthanasia” program . SS physicians initially experimented with various substances—hydrogen peroxide, benzene, and other chemicals—before settling on phenol as the most “efficient” killing agent .
Dr. Friedrich Entress, who organized the injections, later testified that he received an order from Dr. Enno Lolling, chief of SS concentration-camp medicine, stating that “incurably mentally ill persons, incurable tuberculosis patients, and those permanently incapable of work” were to be killed . The order was later expanded to include “sick prisoners whose recovery was not possible within four weeks” .
Early experiments with benzene proved impractical—one victim reportedly took 45 minutes to die. The SS quickly moved to intravenous injections and then to direct heart injections, which killed within seconds .
2. The Procedure: Medical Precision as Murder
The killing took place in a room called the Behandlungszimmer (“treatment room”) in Block 20 of Auschwitz I . Prisoners were led there under the pretense of receiving medical treatment . SS doctors, often accompanied by their assistants (Sanitätsdienstgrade), would administer 10-20 ml of concentrated phenol solution directly into the heart via a large syringe .
Death occurred within approximately 15 seconds from cardiac paralysis . Victims’ bodies showed dark burn marks at the injection site . The method was preferred by the SS for its speed and lack of mess compared to gassing or shooting .
The most notorious perpetrator of phenol injections was SS Sergeant Josef Klehr, who was described as one of the most enthusiastic killers in this role. According to survivor testimony, Klehr was known to “round out the numbers”—if a selection of prisoners for execution came to an odd number like 27, he would pick additional prisoners to make it 30 . One former prisoner nurse testified that Klehr “could kill a few hundred people the way a shoemaker rips a rotten sole off a shoe” .
3. The Victims: Who Was Targeted
The victims of phenol injections were primarily:
Seriously ill prisoners whom SS doctors deemed “unproductive” or too weak to recover
Jewish prisoners targeted during infirmary selections
Political prisoners marked for execution by the Gestapo
The targets were often selected during hospital rounds by SS physicians, who examined patients and decided who was “fit” for treatment and who was marked for death . Camp hospital records were systematically falsified, with death certificates listing false causes such as pneumonia, myocardial infarction, or septic pharyngitis .
4. The Numbers: The Scale of Killing
The exact number of victims killed by phenol injections remains unknown, but estimates suggest the scale was enormous. One former prisoner doctor, Professor Fejkiel, estimated that approximately 30,000 people were killed in this fashion . A Polish prisoner orderly named Mieczyslaw Panszczyk reportedly bragged that he personally killed 12,000 people with injections—though he had no medical training whatsoever .
In 1942 alone, according to one prisoner doctor, “every day, twenty to thirty or more were killed this way” .
5. The Deception: Medicine as Mask
The phenol injections were particularly horrifying because of their medical facade. Prisoners were brought to a treatment room, often worn by doctors and assistants in white coats, and were told they were receiving treatment . One survivor described his father being told: “You will get an anti-typhus injection” moments before his death .
The falsification of hospital records was systematic. In a 1946 statement, Dr. Jan Olbrycht, a former prisoner, testified that “if it had not been for the defeat of Nazism, a detached observer studying the history of the prisoners’ sicknesses and the protocols of the treatment they received would conclude that the Auschwitz camp was a model of good sanitary, hygienic, and medical practice” .
6. The Perpetrators
The phenol injections were carried out by:
SS doctors such as Friedrich Entress, Helmuth Vetter, and Eduard Wirths
SS medical orderlies like Josef Klehr, Herbert Scherpe, and Emil Hantl
Selected prisoner orderlies who performed the injections under SS supervision
Josef Klehr was convicted in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963-1965) of complicity in at least 900 killings . He was sentenced to life imprisonment .
7. The Legacy: Lessons for Medical Ethics
The phenol injection method stands as one of the most stark examples of the perversion of medicine in the Holocaust. As one prisoner doctor observed, Nazi doctors were “men who were trained to heal, help, relieve suffering and prolong life, and there they did just the opposite” . The method’s clinical precision—death in seconds from cardiac arrest—was coupled with deception, as victims were lured under the guise of healing.
This history reinforces the importance of medical ethics and the imperative that the healing professions must never be co-opted for murder. The Auschwitz phenol injections remain a warning of how easily the tools of medicine can be turned into instruments of genocide when ethical boundaries are abandoned.
Primary Sources:
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — “Selections and Lethal Injections”
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — “Other Doctor-Perpetrators”
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — “Falsifying the Hospital Records”
Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
New York Times — “Doctor Describes Killings” (1964)
Testimony of Professor Fejkiel — Auschwitz survivor
Fritz Bauer Institut — Auschwitz Trial documentation