"Belsen Was a Gas" is a song by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols, about one of the Nazi concentration camps in Nazi Germany liberated by British troops in 1945, Bergen-Belsen.
Its title is a pun on the poison gases used in many Nazi concentration camps, referencing a "gas" as slang for a fun time. In fact, there were no gas chambers at Bergen-Belsen, as it was not one of the extermination camps. The song's darkly humorous lyrics were intended to irritate the generation the group believed were responsible for many of the political and social problems in Britain at that time. Later, Lydon said that he felt that this song crossed the line into gratuitous bad taste. In an interview conducted for Q magazine in 1996 he stated "[the song] was a very nasty, silly little thing... that should've ended up on the cutting room floor."
Cover versions of the song have been performed and recorded live and in studio by bands including British punk group the Exploited who played theirs as early as 1983. Chaos UK also covered the song. The song was covered in 1996 by the neo-Nazi skinhead band No Remorse.
Demo version
A demo of the song was rediscovered during a move from Virgin to Universal Music Group's catalogue in January 2012.
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