THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZlate on any equipment of the disinfestation chambers.The room has a surface area of approximately 130 m 2 , is open tothe framework of the roof, and therefore has a volume of at least 400m 3 . However, the space above 2 m in height must probably be consideredto have been unusable dead space, resulting in the waste of hugeamounts of HCN/Zyklon B, since a quantity of Zyklon B of at least 4to 5 kg (10 g per m 3 ) cyanide content was necessary for just one gassing,156 regardless of whether the room contained only a few personaleffects or whether the available area was filled. For example, with 100fumigation cycles per year (one every 3 or 4 days) approximately 0.8tons of Zyklon B would have been consumed by this installation aloneand by building 5a, corresponding to 10% of the entire Zyklon B deliveriesto Auschwitz in 1942, with a total delivery of 7.5 tons. 157When one considers that there were other HCN disinfestation installationsin Birkenau in addition to this one; that the deliveries toBirkenau camp also supplied the related labor camps (more than 30 innumber); and the fact that inmate barracks were also occasionally fumigatedwith this insecticide, 158 it will be seen that the quantities ofZyklon B delivered to Auschwitz camp can actually be explained bynormal delousing activities.The annual delivery quantities were too low to ensure successfuldisinfestation of all personal effects and buildings in all camps in theAuschwitz complex, since typhus epidemics were never entirely eliminated.How frequently the delousing chambers of BW 5a and 5b were actuallyused for HCN disinfestation has to remain open for the time being,since no documentation about this has been found yet, and alsobecause the document cited above states that the use of Zyklon B hadto be abandoned as early as December 1942 (at least in unsafe installa-156 The gross mass given on the label of a Zyklon B can always refered to the net HCN content ofthe can, i.e., excluding the mass of the carrier material. That means for instance that a 1 kgZyklon B can consisted of 1 kg HCN plus some 2 kg of carrier material, i.e., a 1 kg can had atotal mass of some 3 kg.157 Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, British Military Tribunal, Case against B. Teschet al., here, the sworn statement of A. Zaun, Hamburg Oct. 24, 1945, Document No. NI-11396; quoted according to U. Walendy, Auschwitz im IG-Farben-Prozeß, Verlag für Volkstumund Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Vlotho 1981, p. 62.158 See also the Höß order relating to the avoidance of accidental poisoning during the disinfestationof barracks, reproduced by J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 201. For each barracks witha volume of approximately 40m×12m×3.5m > 1,500 m 3 , this means a requirement of 15 kgZyklon B; the 100 barracks in Birkenau camp alone would require 1.5 tons!77