THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTAlmost all the concentration camps of the Third Reich containedfacilities for the disinfestation of lice carried by inmate clothing. Variousmethods were used to accomplish this objective: hot air, hot steam,several different poison gases, and towards the end of the war evenmicrowaves. Delousing was urgently needed in particular because licecarry epidemic typhus, a disease with a history of repeated outbreaks ineastern and central Europe. Epidemic typhus appeared again duringWWII where it claimed hundreds of thousands of victims, not only inthe concentration camps and prisoner-of-war camps, but among soldiersat the front. Since WWI, the most effective and the most widelyused means for the extermination of lice and other pests, was hydrogencyanide, marketed under the trade-name Zyklon B.Fig. 5: Single door to an executiongas chamber for one single personper gassing procedure (Baltimore,USA, 1954, technology from the1930s). The execution of a singleperson with hydrogen cyanide isinevitably far more complicated anddangerous to the environment thanthe fumigation of clothing (even in aDEGESCH circulation chamber).Fig. 6: One of three doors from analleged National Socialist gaschamber for the execution ofhundreds of persons simultaneously,using Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide)(crematorium I, Auschwitz, Poland,early 1940s). This door is neither ofsturdy construction, nor is it air-tight(note the keyhole). It is partly glazedand opens inwards i.e., into the room,where corpses were allegedly pilingup.24