Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
temperature in order for the gas to be released; water does not have to be brought
to its boiling point in order to evaporate. However, the process is slow at any
lower temperature and especially slow in winter temperatures.
An information booklet for Zyklon 647 gives typical times of 2-72 hours for the
gassing process and at least 10 hours for ventilation; the former depends very
much on the temperature and the target pests and the latter on the physical properties
of the space and its contents. For example, clothing and bedding should be
beaten even after ventilation.
Another step recommended at the end of a Zyklon gassing and ventilation
process is the test for residual HCN gas. The typical test uses a mixture of copper
acetate and benzidene acetate and test paper which turns dark blue if the HCN
level is dangerously high. A temperature of at least 15°C (60°F) is required to perform
this test, so there are many circumstances under which it cannot be performed.
648
Use of Zyklon is inherently dangerous, and during the war there existed a
German regulation that it could be used only by, or under license from, DE-
GESCH, which was officially responsible for training all operators using it. 649
There have also been gas chambers designed specifically to use Zyklon to disinfest
articles such as clothing with HCN, especially in Germany. 650 With few exceptions
the interiors of these gas chambers are heated, in order to accelerate the
development of the gaseous HCN from the liquid form, and for other reasons.
Gaseous HCN is water soluble, so high temperature is desired to reduce moisture
in the gas chamber. Also, lice and some other pests are easier to kill at higher
temperatures, because their metabolism rates are higher. Desired temperatures are
in the range 25-35°C (77-95°F).
In such gas chambers, the air/gaseous HCN mixture is expelled from the top
when the gassing process is completed, for safety reasons and perhaps because
fresh air that enters during the ventilation is cool and the warmer air/ HCN gas
mixture tends to the top of the chamber (as already mentioned, gaseous HCN, by
itself, is only slightly lighter than air).
A related point is that the standard German Zyklon gas chamber of the time
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648
649
650
432
Booklet Zyklon for Pest Control, published by DEGESCH, apparently during the 70s. Similar information
is also given in a German document that appeared at the Nuremberg trials as document
NI-9912 and is presented in English translation by J.-C. Pressac, Auschwitz: Technique and Operation
of the Gas Chambers, Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, NY, 1989, pp. 18-20. The reader
should understand that the title of this book is misleading, as the only real “gas chambers” whose
“technique and operation” are discussed are fumigation gas chambers. The homicidal gas chambers
are only imagined, based on alleged “criminal traces”. It is common to refer to this book in
discussion of Auschwitz, because it is the greatest single published source of reproductions of
original documents and photographs for the camp.
F. Puntigam, H. Breymesser and E. Bernfus, Blausäuregaskammern zur Fleckfieberabwehr,
Reichsarbeitsblatt (special publication), Reichsarbeitsministerium, Berlin, 1943, p. 21. DE-
GESCH booklet (op. cit., pp. 7,24).
R.P. Tew, Pest Control in Germany during the period 1939-1945, H.M. Stationery Office, London,
1951, pp. 57, 96. No. 32 in the surveys of the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee.
On these gas chambers, see mainly the book by F. Puntigam et al. (1943), pp. 9-68. There is also
information in the aforementioned DEGESCH booklet.