Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 4: Zyklon B and Gas Detectors in Birkenau
Crematorium II
The main content of this supplement first appeared in print in the Journal of
Historical Review, vol. 16, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1997, pp. 24-30.
Zyklon B
In The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, I remarked that typhus was a great killer
for the Germans in World War I, giving a reference published shortly after that
war. 645 The typhus of World War I, like that of World War II, was carried by lice.
In response to this specific problem, the German company DEGESCH (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung – German Pest Control Co.) developed
the Zyklon B pesticide 646 and made it available for commercial use in 1923.
Zyklon B, referred to here merely as Zyklon, is a very effective pesticide consisting
of liquid hydrogen cyanide (HCN, an acid) absorbed into some inert material
such as wood pulp, with an irritant added to warn bystanders of its presence.
HCN is also called “prussic acid” and in German “Blausäure” (blue acid), because
HCN tends to leave blue stains in the presence of iron compounds like rust; the
resulting insoluble and non-toxic iron salt of HCN, Iron Blue, is commonly used
in blue dyes.
In its gaseous or liquid form, HCN is very deadly and is used in American
execution gas chambers, where it is traditionally generated by mixing an acid
(normally sulfuric acid) with potassium cyanide or sodium cyanide, resulting in
rapid release of HCN in its gaseous form.
HCN is useless as a battlefield gas because it is a true gas, slightly lighter than
air, and disperses too rapidly for that application. World War I battlefield gases
were actually dusts that hovered about the target area.
The pesticide Zyklon works somewhat differently. It is supplied in a very
tightly sealed container. When a space (e.g. a barracks or building) is to be treated
with it, that space is tightly sealed, and trained personnel empty cans of Zyklon on
the floor, preferably spreading the Zyklon out as much as possible. They then
leave the space, close it, and wait the time required for the liquid HCN to pass
into the gaseous form by evaporation, fill the space, and kill the target pests. Then
the space is opened and ventilated.
This is a very time consuming process because the evaporation is slow, and for
safety reasons the time required for ventilation is lengthy. The boiling point of
HCN is 25.6°C (78°F). That does not mean the space must have that ambient
645
646
Chapter 4, p. 162, citing the Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 ed., vol. 32, (1922 – third volume supplementing
the 11th edition), p. 157.
Debórah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt, Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present, W.W. Norton, NY,
1996, p. 219.
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