THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTdamage to a church in Lower Bavaria as cited above. 22 Even today,buildings are fumigated with hydrogen cyanide, yet Iron Blue is rarelyformed. The reason for this, however, is quite obvious. Fumigationwith hydrogen cyanide is used to kill vermin, such as woodworm, mealmoths, corn beetles, or lice. However, a massive case of vermin infestationrequiring the use of hydrogen cyanide occurs, in practice, only inbuildings which have already been in use for relatively long periods oftime, i.e., many years. It is therefore to be expected that the interiorplaster of such buildings has long since become thoroughly carbonized.Furthermore, the rooms to be fumigated are, as a rule, heated in orderto enhance the effectiveness of the hydrogen cyanide (faster evaporation,slower adsorption losses, stimulated metabolism of vermin).Since it is not to be expected, according to the findings presented here,that a perceptible accumulation of cyanides, let alone the formation ofIron Blue, would occur after only one fumigation in warm, dry, andchemically set wall materials, one cannot be surprised that such buildingdamage is the exception rather than the rule.The damage to the building in Bavaria is a typical exception here,since the unheated church, notorious for its humid walls, had beenplastered with cement mortar, which is known to remain alkaline formany months, only a few weeks before. These are exactly the conditionswhich in my view were favorable to the formation of Iron Blue.With increasing setting of the cement plaster over the course ofmonths, the pH value of the masonry in the church finally dropped, sothat the final reaction led to the formation of Iron Blue, which is stablefor long periods of time. This final reaction of the adsorbed cyanideinto Iron Blue was only completed after approximately two years. Theprior stage of this reaction, the formation of considerably paler ironcyanides, could already have been completed or well progressed priorto this. 520A comparison with the probable conditions of the disinfestationchambers and alleged homicidal ‘gas chambers’ of the Third Reich isquite informative (see Table 24). The following assumes that both installations(tacitly assuming the existence of the homicidal ‘gas chambers’)were put into use more or less immediately after their construc-520 Incidentally, all the plaster in the church had be to knocked off the walls and replaced, sincethere was no other way to get rid of the Iron Blue. Communication from Konrad Fischer, headarchitect during the renovation of the church at that time.280