THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTRaleigh (North Carolina), for example, is said to use 454 g KCN inhalf concentrated sulfuric acid, leading to instant formation of hydrogencyanide vapor, which is even visible for a short period to the witnessesin the witness room and which reaches the victim in seconds. 1As a matter of pure calculation, this generates approximately 180 g ofhydrogen cyanide, corresponding to 150 liters of gas. However, since aconsiderable part of it remains dissolved in the half concentrated sulfuricacid (approximately 50%, see chapter 8.3.3.4.), we assume in thefollowing that approximately 90 g or 75 liters hydrogen cyanide arereleased as gas. In North Carolina, this gas arises immediately beneaththe victim, so that the victim must be exposed, immediately after thebeginning of the execution process, to a concentration which probablyexceeds 10% by volume for a short period, but then falls steadily as aresult of diffusion of the hydrogen cyanide throughout the chamber. 426At a normal respiration volume of approximately 15 to 20 liter perminute and assuming an average concentration during the execution ofonly 0.75% by volume, approximately 1.35 to 1.8 grams of HCN willbe ingested in 10 minutes (150-200 liters of inhaled air), which correspondsto ten to twenty times the fatal dose. In the following calculations,we will assume a ten-fold overdose only, in order to kill all thepeople in the chamber, with certainty, in ten minutes.7.2. Evaporation Characteristics of Zyklon BZyklon B does not release its poison gas instantaneously, butrather over an extended period of time. Since this period of time can bedecisive for the evaluation both of eyewitness accounts as well as ofchemical analyses, it will be investigated more thoroughly in this chapter.R. Irmscher of DEGESCH reported in a paper written in 1942 that,at that time, the use of cardboard discs and gypsum (Ercco) were themost commonly used carrier material. 427 The gypsum version was426 Assuming a volume of 10 m 3 in the chamber, 75 Liter HCN corresponds to 0.75% by volume,i.e., somewhat more than double the end values taken by Leuchter.427 R. Irmscher, “Nochmals: ‘Die Einsatzfähigkeit der Blausäure bei tiefen Temperaturen’”,Zeitschrift für hygienische Zoologie und Schädlingsbekämpfung, 1942, pp. 35f.; on the historyof the development of Zyklon B, see Wolfgang Lambrecht, “Zyklon B—eine Ergänzung”,VffG 1(1) (1997), pp. 2-5 (online: www.vho.org/VffG/1997/1/Lambrecht1.html) as well as W.Lambrecht, O. Karl, op. cit. (note 105).194