An Annotated Bibliography: Zyklon-B

Dominic Felice

Mrs. Schmidt

Honors English 9

February 27, 2018

Dominic Felice

Mrs. Schmidt

Honors English 9

February 27, 2018

An Annotated Bibliography: Zyklon-B

Source: Bowl, Chris. “Fritz Haber: Jewish chemist whose work led to Zyklon B.”

BBC News, BBC, 12 Apr. 2011, www.bbc.com/news/world-13015210

My first source is about Fritz Haber. Fritz Haber was a Jewish German chemist

who was born in 1868. He moved to Berlin to study chemistry, where he then converted

to Christianity as anti-Semitism started to spread. The problem that Haber solved that he

became famous for was the problem of feeding a growing population. Crops needed

better supplies of nitrogen to produce more food for the growing population in Germany

at the time. In 1909, Haber found a way to synthesis ammonia for fertilizer from nitrogen

and hydrogen. With the help of Carl Bosch, an engineer working for the BASF chemical

company, the fertilizer began to be mass produced. Shortly after, World War I broke out

and Haber was working for the Kaiser’s research institute to help the war effort. He was

researching mustard gas, and in 1915 he researched was used in the war at Ypres. Haber

was then promoted to captain in the German Army for his contribution, but on the night

of the celebration his wife committed suicide as she did not support what he was doing.

By the end of the war, he had remarried seemingly unfazed by his early wife’s death, as

well as being awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on ammonia. By the early 1930’s

extreme anti-Semitism could be seen spreading throughout Germany, and he was now no
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longer to work even though had converted to Christianity. He died in 1934 of a heart

attack. Later it was discovered that he in 1920’s he had also researched pesticide gases,

which was then used to develop Zyklon B, the gas used in the holocaust to kill millions of

people.

Source: “Hydrogen Cyanide.” Organization For The Prohibition of Chemical

Weapons, OPCW, www.opcw.org/about-chemical-weapons/types-of-chemical-

agent/blood-agents/hydrogen-cyanide/

My second source is about Hydrogen Cyanide, which is the type of chemical that

Zyklon B was. At room temperature, Hydrogen Cyanide is colorless liquid. The easiest

way for poisoning to occur from Hydrogen Cyanide is from inhalation, but it can also be

taken in through the skin as liquid hydrogen cyanide and cyanide salt solutions. Its high

volatility would make hydrogen cyanide hard to use in warfare situations, but in confined

spaces it would rapidly reach lethal levels, which made Zyklon B so effective in the gas

chambers during the holocaust. The most lethal effect of hydrogen cyanide is that it

inhibits cell enzymes, which provide energy to cells. This can cause cells to no longer be

able to take out their designated functions, and cell mortality will begin to occur. Other

symptoms of cyanide poisoning depend on variables, such as how long was the exposure,

the total dose, and the way the cyanide as taken in. Symptoms can range from

restlessness, increased respiratory rate, giddiness, headaches, palpitations, respiratory

difficulty, vomiting, convulsions, respiratory failure, unconsciousness, and sudden death.

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Source: “The Nizkor Project.” Auschwitz: Zyklon B, Nizkor,

www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-06.html.

My third source is about Zyklon B. Zyklon B is a potent insecticide that serves as

a carrier of Hydrocyanic acid, or HCN. HCN is the cause of death in Zyklon B, it is

extremely lethal to humans, and is used in execution gas chamber in the US. During the

holocaust, Zyklon B was shipped in the shape of small pellets or disks. The two German

firms that produced Zyklon B originally insisted that they only thought it was being used

for fumigation, but documents were later discovered showing that they knew that it was

being used in the holocaust. Many holocaust deniers say that the gassing never happened

because Zyklon B is an insecticide, and it wouldn’t make sense to use it on humans, since

it was made for insects and you would need extremely high concentrations of it for it to

be lethal to humans. However, HCN is much Fdeadlier to warm blooded creatures than it

is on insects, showing that Zyklon B was never intended for being used as an insecticide

during the holocaust. Furthermore, in the chambers only a small amount of Zyklon B

would need to be used, about 300 parts per million, which is a very small amount. Also,

Holocaust deniers say that the gas chamber walls have very little chemical evidence of

being exposed to Zyklon B, but this is because the chambers were blown up and the walls

have been exposed to weather for the last 50 years. During the gassing, the chambers

would be about 210 square meters. Zyklon B would be poured through one, or sometimes

two opening into the chamber. The people inside would almost instantly begin to cry out

in pain and worry, but after a few minutes there would be silence. Overall it would take

about 15 minutes for a gassing to take place.

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Source: Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Zyklon B Poison.” ThoughtCo, 16 Apr. 2017,

www.thoughtco.com/zyklon-b-gas-chamber-poison-1779688

My fourth source is also about Zyklon B. In September of 1941, Zyklon B was

used to kill millions of people in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek.

Before the war, Zyklon B was used to disinfect ships, barracks, clothing, warehouses,

factories, granaries, and more. By 1941, the Nazis had decided to kill Jews on a mass

scale, they just needed an efficient way of doing it. Before Zyklon B they tried mass

shootings and carbon monoxide gassings, but these were either too slow or too costly. On

September 3rd, 1941, in Auschwitz the first victims of Zyklon B were killed. Six hundred

Soviet and two-hundred fifty Polish prisoners. All of them died within minutes, and it

was cheap way of killing. Just days later the Nazis made their first gas chamber at

Auschwitz. The Nazis had finally found their cheap, efficient, and effective way to kill

their prisoners. Quickly, the Nazis formed an Auschwitz II with little other purpose then

to use this new method of killing on their prisoners. As “undesirables” were brought into

Auschwitz by train, those who were unfit for work were sent straight to Auschwitz II

where they were told they would be getting a bath. The chambers had fake shower heads

in them to help keep everyone calm while the prisoners were locked into the rooms with

large doors. An SS officer would then open a vent in the roof of the chamber and pour

Zyklon B pellets inside, and the pellets would immediately turn to a lethal gas. Within

five to twenty minutes everyone inside would be dead of suffocation. The air would them

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 be pumped out, and other prisoners would hose out the chamber and take away the bodies

and send them to the crematoria.

Source: Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2017.

My fifth source was Night, a book by Elie Wiesel. It is about his personal

experience in the holocaust. As a kid, he had heard about the Nazis, but his village never

thought they were that bad. They then got taken over and the Nazis weren’t treating them

that bad, so they did nothing to stop the Nazis. It was then announced that their village

was being liquidated, and that they would be moved to work camps. Wiesel was then

separated from his mother and sister but stuck with his father. From then he went some of

the most horrible experiences a human could imagine. Although during being in these

work camps, Wiesel never personally experienced Zyklon-B, there was lots of people

around him who did. It was the main way the Nazis used to kill their prisoners. Even

though Wiesel never went through the gas chambers, there was still many other horrible

experiences he had to go through. For example, he had cut open his foot, and he got it

stitched. Later, while he was still recovering he was forced to get up and run to a different

camp as the one he was at was about to be liberated by the Allies. While he was running

he cut his foot back open and had to use part of a torn cloth to cover it up. This shows

that even if the prisoners weren’t gassed, they were still treated extremely inhumane.

Eventually, Wiesel was liberated by the Allies and became a famous and accomplished

writer and speaker.