It was a cool spring morning in 1939 as Rasa was driven in the back of an enclosed truck to the old Lithuanian fortress where the gas chamber waited for her. Two orthodox nuns sat in each side of the attractive 23-year-old with long blonde hair. Rasa had been sentenced to death for her part in an assignation of a diplomat. The other three involved, including her male friend were killed as police stormed the building in which they were hiding. “I just hid them out,” Rasa said as the truck came to a stop and the back doors opened. Two armed guards along with an army officer stood by to receive her. To the officer’s side stood an orthodox priest.
“I didn’t know what they were going to do,” Rasa said as she was taken from the truck and ushered inside the fortress to a small building. “Please believe me, I didn’t know what my friends were going to do. I just gave them a place to stay.”
As one guard took one of Rasa’s arms the other man to the other and they followed the officer to the interior of the fortress with the priest and nuns following behind. Once inside they stood Rasa before a Colonel who sat at a desk. He looked up at her, “You have been sentenced to death for your part in the murder of a high-ranking diplomat. Do you have anything you would like to say before I have you taken to a cell?”
“I…I didn’t know what my friends were going to do. They just said they needed a place to stay so I helped them.”
“In doing so you not only help commit murder you also committed treason. For that you will be the first woman to die in our new gas chamber. Take her to the cell and get her ready.”
As Rasa was taken to a nearby cell, guards started to attach a cylinder of compressed cyanide gas to a hose that led to the chamber. “I hear that the Americans are switching to what they say is a safer way to put the gas in the chamber,” one of the guards said.
“What is that?” the other asked.
“They will mix it right below the chair from now on.”
The other guard nodded his head, “it makes sense.”
As Rasa reached the cell, two women waited on her. One of them said, “Take off your cloths.”
Rasa trembled as she started to undress. She removed her shoes and her dress first before rolling her stocking down her legs and off the tips of her toes. With her shaking hands she removed her underwear. She was then handed a simple knee length dress that was gray/blue in color, which she put on her now cold body.
A man officer and a priest then entered the cell. The officer touched Rasa on her shoulder, “It’s time.”
Quietly, Rasa walked out of the cell and down the cold hall barefooted. Her lips started to quiver as she approached an open door that had six latches, three on each side that would seal the door when shut. She could see the simple, heavy chair that sat in the center of the chamber and bolted to the floor. The straps on the chair had been opened up as they waited to receive Rasa’s young body.
One of the guards nudged her into the chamber where they seated her in the chair and strapped her down. The guards quickly left the chamber as Rasa looked at the door to see the priest raising his head and making a cross at her as the door was shut. The guards quickly pulled the six latches to seal the door and then stepped back. The executioners in an adjoining room put on their gas mask and gloved. One turned a valve that opened a tube into the chamber and the other turned another valve to release the pressurized cyanide gas.
Rasa raised her head and look directly at the ceiling as the gas started to fill the chamber. As the almond tasted of the gas entered his mouth she jerked and lowered her eyes to see the witnesses watching through the heavy glass. Panicking, Rasa tried to push against the straps and get out of the chair, but to no avail as they held her firmly. She tried to hold her breath, but she could not hold it long until her mouth slightly opened and she started to slobber. Suddenly, her head shot backward with her eyes and mouth wide open. Her body seemed to arch backward with her fingers and toes spreading apart. She became rigid as the cyanide gripped her muscles. If was if she was staring at the ceiling and her mouth froze in a silent scream.
One minute went by and Rasa’s body was rocked by one violent convulsion and then her head fell forward and she was still.
Two guards carried in a coffin and placed it near the chamber as the executioners started to let out the gas and replace it with oxygen. A truck pulled up to the door of the prison to take Rasa’s body to be buried.

(I wrote this store based on what little information I could find on the Lithuania use of the gas chamber in the late 1930’s. The chamber was destroyed by the Soviets and the records of those executed by gas were also destroyed as well. There are only 9 documented executions in the chamber and as far as I know no females have been discovered as being executed there to date. I did discover that they had used information obtained by US sources especially Nevada and Colorado.)

 

Intresting story. I did not know that Lithuania used the gas chamber before WW2. Thanks.

 

Yes, they had a gas chamber and used data from the Nevada. However, when their country was taken over by the Soviets in 1940, their chamber was destroyed. It was used for between 9-11 executions.

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