Actually even if they held their breath they would still die. Maybe if they were lucky, they could've survived the gas itself but the Nazis then pulled the bodies apart with hooks and throw them into pits. To top it all off they would pour gasoline over the corpses and light them on fire. However if you were especially hardy and somehow managed to stay alive after all that, you'd most likely die via the diseases that the burnt corpses would give off or suffocate as they filled in the graves.
Also, the gas was not for suffocation. It interfered with cellular respiration. You know, the process cells need to use food. So the cells would die. Even if the gas did not enter the victims lungs, it would kill their skin and eventually get to their vital organs. That's why victims of the gas chambers were stripped of their clothes before they went in. And God forbid it entered another part, like their ear, and got to the brain that way.
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