Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 4: Zyklon B and Gas Detectors in Birkenau Crematorium II
oxygen availability, and burning time.” Since HCN is itself combustible, it makes
a difference whether the combustion is “static” or “dynamic”, an example of the
latter being when there is forced air blowing and the HCN is swept away from the
hot zone before it can itself be decomposed in any way. However, HCN can be released
under either condition. Another complication is that HCN can be released
in the smoldering after a fire has been extinguished. 662
The term “residual” that appears in the letter in question could apply to either
released HCN that, ideally, would have been consumed during the incineration
process but wasn’t or to HCN released after incineration during smoldering. The
chimney of Crematorium II used, as of 29 January 1943, a forced draft system
based on suction, but on 25 March 1943, Topf ordered this system removed due to
overheating of its motors. 663
A Specific Possibility
It remains to suggest a specific potential source for HCN development in the
waste incinerator. In wartime Germany, many articles had to be ersatz (artificial
or synthetic), because of shortages of materials normally imported. Cotton was in
very short supply, and little was used for fabrics. Wool was available but not in
normal quantities. In fact, Germany relied heavily on the manufacture of rayon,
and during the war, army uniforms contained as much as 65% rayon. One must
assume concentration camp uniforms and other fabrics used in the camps had high
rayon content. Could the incineration of such rayon have produced HCN gas It
may seem not, because rayon has no nitrogen in its chemical composition. In
making these statements, I am using the word “rayon” in the normally accepted
sense; rayon is regenerated cellulose made from natural cellulose extracted from
materials such as cotton linters or wood pulp. Cotton was scarce in wartime Germany,
so almost all rayon was made from wood pulp. 664
The burning of rayon can generate HCN gas, if the rayon is impregnated with,
but not chemically bound to, compounds of ammonia, which supply the necessary
nitrogen. This was established some years ago by T. Morikawa, who conducted
experiments that established that ammonia and its compounds, combined with
“cellulosic materials”, can indeed result in the evolution of HCN when burned.
The general conclusion was that such evolution was about the same as for substances
having nitrogen in their chemical compositions in comparable amounts. 665
It is of great relevance, for this discussion, that Morikawa’s study of this point
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Bryan Ballantyne, “Hydrogen cyanide as a product of combustion and a factor in morbidity and
mortality from fires,” in Clinical and Experimental Toxicology of Cyanides, Bryan Ballantyne &
Timothy C. Marrs, eds., Wright, Bristol, 1987, pp. 248-291. Yoshio Tsuchiya, “Significance of
HCN generation in fire gas toxicity,” Journal of Combustion Toxicology, vol. 4, August 1977, pp.
271-282.
Pressac (1989), 214, 230, 306-310, 488. Pressac and Van Pelt (1994), pp. 232f.
A.R. Urquhart, The German Rayon Industry During the Period 1939-1945, H.M. Stationery Office,
London, 1952, pp. 13-16, 275. This work was no. 33 in a series of British postwar studies of
intelligence objectives.
Tokio Morikawa, “Evolution of hydrogen cyanide during combustion and pyrolysis,” Journal of
Combustion Toxicology, vol. 5, pp. 315-330, August 1978.
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