Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 4: Zyklon B and Gas Detectors in Birkenau Crematorium II
used a circulatory system developed by DEGESCH. In this system the air/ HCN
mixture is continually recirculated, i.e. it continually exits and re-enters the gas
chamber. Circulation greatly reduces the length of time required to generate the
gas from the Zyklon and work on the target pests. At the conclusion of the gassing,
expulsion of the gas and the introduction of fresh air are accomplished by
opening and closing the relevant ports in this circulatory system. Overall, a gas
chamber with circulation is about three times more effective than one without, i.e.
can do about three times more work. 651 The practical minimum time required to
kill lice (among the most difficult and resistant creatures) with Zyklon is about 3/4
of an hour. In a heated gas chamber with circulation, a total time of about an hour
for gas generation and killing of the lice, followed by a ventilation period of about
20 minutes, is attainable under practical operational conditions. 652
The best material for a gas chamber using HCN is steel. If bricks or concrete
are used, then the interiors must be coated with a sealant to prevent retention of
the gas in the walls of the gas chamber. 653
Gas Detectors
The extermination legend claims that the pesticide Zyklon B was used to exterminate
Jews in a “gas chamber” within Auschwitz Crematorium II at Birkenau
(see Fig. 33), specifically, in Leichenkeller 1 (morgue cellar 1), whose alleged real
purpose was concealed by being so designated.
In his 1989 book, Pressac 654 remarked on a telegram of 26 Feb. 1943 from the
Auschwitz construction department to the furnace maker Topf. At that date, the
construction of Crematorium II was nearing completion. The telegram requested
delivery of 10 gas detectors for Crematorium II, as had been earlier discussed.
The specific gas to be detected was not stated, but by a process of tortured reasoning,
Pressac concluded that the detectors were for HCN gas, rather than for “the
products of combustion, such as CO or CO 2 , in the furnace room”, and classified
this document as one of his so-called “criminal traces”. Robert Faurisson wrote, in
reply, that Pressac himself had solved this problem and that there was no reason to
believe the detectors were for HCN. 655
Pressac did more research and published a new book in 1993, in which he produced
a document newly discovered in the recently opened Moscow archives. 656 It
is a letter dated 2 March 1943 from the Topf company (by Senior Engineer Prüfer
and a Topf colleague) to the Auschwitz construction department, and it shows that
HCN was indeed the specific gas to be detected by the detectors. It reads:
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Puntigam et al. (1943), p. 33.
Puntigam et al. (1943), pp. 31f, 60f.
DEGESCH booklet, op. cit., p. 25.
Pressac (1989), pp. 371, 432f.
R. Faurisson, “Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers,” Journal of Historical
Review, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1991, p. 59.
Jean-Claude Pressac, Les crématoires d’Auschwitz: la machinerie du meurtre de masse, CNRS
Éditions, Paris, 1993. The document is reproduced, together with an English translation, by J.-C.
Pressac and Robert-Jan Van Pelt in their article in Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Y.
Gutman and M. Berenbaum, eds., Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington, 1994, pp. 230f.
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