Zyklon

Haber s legacy, like his life, was a mix of high-minded science and nationalism gone tragically amiss. To obliterate Haber s achievements, the Nazis credited others with his nitrogen-fixation process and his chemical warfare work. Most horrifically, the Nazis used the pesticide Zyklon B—an offshoot of work begun in Haber s institute and supported by him—in concentration camp gas chambers. Among Haber s relatives, members of his stepsister s family lost their lives to Zyklon B cyanide at Auschwitz. 

Margit Szollosi-Janze. Fritz Haber 1868-1934 Eine Biographie. Munich Verlag C. H. Beck, 1998. This authoritative biography of Haber scrupulously sorts fact from fiction unfortunately there is no English translation of this 928-page book. Source for facial scar attempt to become reserve officer role of sanitariums and Habers stays in them Clara as chemist and professor s wife Haber s BASF contract Reform Movement Clara s despairing letter Prussian ideals Haber as Archimedes his responsibility for poison gas and wartime authoritarianism Clara and poison gas Sackur Haber leaves after Clara s suicide Haber s postwar depression, Nobel Prize, postwar gas research, and help for Weimar Republic April 1933 events to end and Zyklon B. 

A few weeks after the replastering of the church with a water-resistant cement mortar, the entire church had been fumigated with Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide) to exterminate woodworm in the choir stalls. The hydrogen cyanide, released by the Zyklon B, did not just kill woodworm it... 

Fig. 4 In August 1976, the Protestant church at D-96484 Meeder-Wiesenfeld was fumigated with Zyklon B. Subsequently, blue-colored stains appeared all over the plaster (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 6 One of three doors from an alleged National Socialist gas chamber for the execution of hundreds of persons simultaneously, using Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide) (crematorium I, Auschwitz, Poland, early 1940s). This door is neither of sturdy construction, nor is it air-tight (note the keyhole). It is partly glazed and opens inwards i.e., into the room, where corpses were allegedly piling...

Zyklon B was licensed and produced by the DEGESCH108 corporation residing in Frankfurt.109 Until the end of the Second World War, it played an extraordinarily important role in the struggle against insect pests and rodents110,111 in food warehouses, large-scale means of trans-... 

See also, in this regard, Wolfgang Lambrecht, Otto Karl, Das Handelsprodukt Zyklon B, soon to be published on the internet at www.vho.org/D/Beitraege/Zyklon.html. 

Richtlinien fur die Anwendung von Blausdure (Zyklon) zur Ungeziefervertilgung (Entwesung), Gesundheitsanstalt des Protektorats Bohmen und Mahren, Prag o.J. Dokument NI-9912(1) at the International Military Tribunal, reproduced by Herbert Verbeke (ed.), op. cit. (note 43), pp. 94-99. 

All the facilities listed therein were subject to modifications. The number of sanitary facilities increased with the number of inmates, as the two aforementioned documents already show. Pressac mentions 25 chambers operated with Zyklon B, without providing a verifiable source.137... 

He reports that at present three large disinfestation, shower, and sauna facilities could be put into operation, specifically two facilities for the inmates and one for the members of the SS troops. The capacity of these facilities is some 3,000 to 4,000 persons per 24 hours. Zyklon B disinfestation has been discontinued entirely, since it has been found that success is not 100% certain with this procedure. ... 

When one considers that there were other HCN disinfestation installations in Birkenau in addition to this one that the deliveries to Birkenau camp also supplied the related labor camps (more than 30 in number) and the fact that inmate barracks were also occasionally fumigated with this insecticide,158 it will be seen that the quantities of Zyklon B delivered to Auschwitz camp can actually be explained by normal debusing activities. 

How frequently the debusing chambers of BW 5a and 5b were actually used for HCN disinfestation has to remain open for the time being, since no documentation about this has been found yet, and also because the document cited above states that the use of Zyklon B had to be abandoned as early as December 1942 (at least in unsafe installa-... 

The gross mass given on the label of a Zyklon B can always refered to the net HCN content of the can, i.e., excluding the mass of the carrier material. That means for instance that a 1 kg Zyklon B can consisted of 1 kg HCN plus some 2 kg of carrier material, i.e., a 1 kg can had a total mass of some 3 kg. 

See also the HoB order relating to the avoidance of accidental poisoning during the disinfestation of barracks, reproduced by J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 201. For each barracks with a volume of approximately 40m A 2m 3.5m > 1,500 m3, this means a requirement of 15 kg Zyklon B the 100 barracks in Birkenau camp alone would require 1.5 tons ... 

The morgue was later alleged to have been converted into a gas chamber . Three to four hatches are later said to have been pierced through the roof for the introduction of the Zyklon B for homicidal... 

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