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Though the Nazi hierarchy did not question the bravery and hard work of the Einsatzgruppen, they were dissatisfied with its methods, not on the grounds that these methods were inhuman, but because they were too slow and too costly. Nazi science was asked to step in and offer a solution. Freed of the restrains of any "Judaizing tendencies", Nazi scientists could exercise their ingenuity to the fullest. 

They experimented -- on human beings, of course -- by injecting air into the veins, severing arteries, testing various poisons, and so on, but these methods were rejected because of the time and labor involved. Serendipity succeeded where ingenuity failed. A jubilant Nazi reported he had stumbled upon a perfect method. Having some 600 Russian prisoners of war to dispose of, he had experimented with an inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture gas known as Zyklon B, a hydrogen cyanide. 
Within a few minutes all 600 Russians were dead. An effective way of quickly disposing of millions had been found.

The entire Jewish phase of the "final solution" was placed in the hands of one Adolf Eichmann, a slender, owlish, failure-prone salesman of oil products, who, through a rapid rise within the Nazi hierarchy, had become a cynical, boastful, sycophantic S.S. lieutenant colonel, with a frumpy wife and a glamorous mistress. When apprehended fifteen years after the war by Israeli agents, Eichmann modestly disclaimed any credit for his achievement, but we must not underestimate the enormity of the task that faced him back in the exhilarating days when German armies were victoriously slashing their way into Russia.

The old concentration camps had to be modernized for mass murder. Additional camps, large enough to handle hundreds of thousands of Jews at a time, had to be built. Means for transporting millions of Jews from all over Eastern Europe to these camps had to be provided. New railroad spurs had to be built, as these camps were off the main arteries. Corps of special camp attendants had to be recruited and trained, records kept.

Soon a sizable segment of the German population was diverted from the war effort for the planning, building, and staffing of these murder camps. Generals on the Russian front complained that winter uniforms for the troops were arriving late because trains had been diverted; industrialists complained they were being pirated of skilled labor. But nothing was allowed to interfere with the "final solution".

Max I. Dimont - Jews, God and History