Zyklon B – Fact File
- Zyklon B is a cyanide-based insecticide.
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It was invented by Fritz Haber, a German Jew.
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It consists of hydrocyanic acid, which, when exposed to air, forms hydrogen cyanide.
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The chemical giant Degussa developed the technology to manufacture the chemical into crystals – as it was used in gas chambers.
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Zyklon B was used by the Nazis as a chemical weapon to poison the Jewish prisoners in the gas chambers in Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp.
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At other camps, exhaust fumes were used instead of the chemical.
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Zyklon B was initially used in the concentration camps as a chemical for delousing against typhus. This was produced with an odour, as a warning.
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However, the chemical used in the gas chambers did not have this warning odour.
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In January or February of 1940, 250 Gypsy children from Brno in the Buchenwald concentration camp were used as guinea pigs for the chemical.
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On the 3rd of September 1941, 600 Soviet PoWs and and 250 sick Polish prisoners were killed using the chemical.
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This was the first test of gas chambers in Auschwitz.
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Zyklon B is still used in the Czech Republic as a delousing agent, under the name Uragan D2.
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