Editing Gas chamber (section)

==Lithuania==
In 1937–1940, [[Lithuania]] operated a gas chamber in [[Aleksotas]] within the First Fort of the [[Kaunas Fortress]].<ref name="cernevic" /> Previous executions were carried out by hanging or by shooting. However, these methods were viewed as brutal and in January 1937, the criminal code was amended to provide execution by gas which at the time was viewed as more civilized and humane. Lithuania considered and rejected execution by poison. Unlike the American or German model the Lithuanian gas chamber, built out of bricks, worked by inputting compressed lethal gas from an external storage cylinder (Černevičiūtė 2014). The first execution was carried on July 27, 1937: Bronius Pogužinskas, age 37, convicted of murder of five people from a Jewish family.<ref name="cernevic" /> Historian Sigita Černevičiūtė counted at least nine executions in the gas chamber, though records are incomplete and fragmentary. Of the nine, eight were convicted of murder. One of these, Aleksandras Maurušaitis, was also convicted of anti-government actions during the [[1935 Suvalkija strike]]. The last known execution took place on May 19, 1940, for robbery. The fate of the gas chamber after the [[Occupation of Lithuania by Soviet Union 1940|occupation by the Soviet Union]] in June 1940 is unclear.<ref name="cernevic">{{cite news |first=Sigita |last=Černevičiūtė |title=Dujų kamera prieškario Lietuvoje 1937–1940 metais |newspaper=15Min.lt |date=April 8, 2014 |url=http://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/istorija/duju-kamera-prieskario-lietuvoje-1937-1940-metais-582-418225 |publisher=15 min (republished from Naujasis Židinys-Aidai) |language=lt |access-date=2016-11-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127154408/http://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/istorija/duju-kamera-prieskario-lietuvoje-1937-1940-metais-582-418225 |archive-date=November 27, 2016}}</ref>