THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTorganic material can be a disturbing factor during analysis. In any case,the high reactivity of moist iron oxide mixtures (rust) is confirmed.Building 5b: The exterior walls of disinfestation wing BW 5b arenot only blue in places, as in the case of BW 5a, but rather, almostcompletely so, even below the ground (see Fig. 71, below). An exceptionhere is the east wall, which hardly exhibits any blue pigmentation(see Fig. 19, p. 76). The analysis of a fragment of brick from the southside (Sample 16) therefore shows an extremely high value. Here, thepigment extends further into the masonry. Here as well, weathering hashad no visible or measurable effect on the pigment concentration. Approximately17% of the iron in the fragment of brick has been transformedinto pigment, despite the only slight concentration in cyanidesable to reach the exterior of the masonry wall here as well. The conspicuousdifference between Building BW 5b and 5a, which is onlyblue in places, is explained by the longer period of use of the 5b wingas a Zyklon B disinfestation chamber. The reason for the perceptiblylesser blue pigmentation of the east side of the exterior wall of thiswing can be explained by the lesser influence of weathering on thisside (east winds are mostly accompanied by dry weather in easternEurope).When examining the interior of this wing, one is surprised by thewalls which are mostly white. Pale green stains are visible only in afew places. The analysis of the green-colored plaster underneath theupper layer, Sample 17, however, shows the highest value found anywhere,despite the thick layer of plaster consisting of a compact, veryhard material, 3 to 4 mm thick. With relation to the transformation ofthe iron, what was said of the upper layer of plaster in BW 5a only, istrue here: near saturation. The color of the material, here only greenish,is apparently not directly meaningful with regards to the cyanide concentration.Because even in the presence of maximum values, the proportionof pigment in the plaster only amounts to 1.5 %, the intenseblue color in places on the surface of the inside of exterior walls of BW5a cannot moreover be explained in this manner. Rather, the dark bluecolors result from a still higher concentration of pigment in the uppermostlayers in the micro-meter range of magnitude caused by the accumulationprocesses of migrating, soluble cyanide salts as describedabove.That these accumulation processes did not occur on the surface ofthe inside of Building 5b may be explained by the different type of ma-264