Let them look it up in the dictionary, then: neither Cyclon nor Zyklon are to be found in Le petit Larousse illustré (1979 edition), Le petit Quillet-Flammarion (1963 edition), or even in the three-volume Larousse (1965 edition) or the twenty-volume Encyclopaedia Universalis (1968-1975 edition).
This, of course, makes the task of those who would like to deny that gas chambers existed in the Nazi concentration camps far easier. A Paul Rassinier can pinpoint "contradictions": "an insecticide: no gas had then been planned for exterminating"(!) and further on: "Zyklon B appears in the form of blue granules from which the gas emanates"; or: "This famous gas which has, until now, been presented to us 'in tablets from which the gas emanated upon contact with the air,' 'upon contact with water vapor,' in fact existed in the form of bottles filled with a highly volatile liquid."[1]
A Robert Faurisson is free to wax ironic on "gas crystals,"[2] or to insist repeatedly on the fact that Zyklon B adheres to surfaces and is difficult to ventilate, etc.[3]
The following note will attempt to clarify matters by explaining, among other things, the indispensable chemical terms.
I first thought it necessary to research the definition of Zyklon B in a classic work of industrial chemistry, which was published in Germany in 1954.[4]
Hydrocyanic (or prussic) acid is a powerful poison for the blood of all higher animals. The DL(50) [lethal dose in 50 percent of cases] for human beings is as high as 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight. In Germany, the most common application of hydrocyanic acid is Zyklon B, a mixture of liquid hydrocyanic acid with chloride and bromide derivatives as catalytic agents and silica as a support.There follows a chart of the principal properties of several gases and vapors used as insecticides, in which the following may be read: "Blausaure -- Formel HC -- Kp 25,6 C -- Dichte (Luft=1) 0,93," that is: "Hydrocyanic acid -- (Chemical) formula HCN -- Boiling point 25.6° Centigrade -- Density (Air=1) 0.93."
It will thus be seen that:
« At the end of February 1943, at Birkenau, the new gassing installation and its modern crematorium, whose construction had just been completed, were inaugurated.... [There follows a description of the A crematoria and the B preparation hall.]I will not say that I was not "shocked" at reading this, but it was at a human level and not for reasons of technical plausibility. On rereading it today, I find it, on the one hand, remarkably consistent with the characteristics of Zyklon B mentioned above and, on the other, virtually a "reply" to Faurisson's arguments: people squeezed together; SS guards wore gas masks; the windows were on the roof and could be hermetically closed from without; the room was ventilated before the Sonderkommando entered; and the gas chamber was separated from the incinerating ovens since carts on rails were used to join the two.
« From there, a door and a few steps led to the gas chamber, which was narrow and very long, and was situated at a slightly lower level. The walls of the chamber were covered with curtains, producing the illusion of an immense shower room. Three windows opened on the flat roof, and could be hermetically closed from without. Rails ran across the hall leading to the oven chamber.
« Here is how the "operations" took place:
« The unfortunates were brought into Hall B and told that they were to take a shower and that they were to undress in the room in which they were. To persuade them that they were actually being taken to the showers, two men dressed in white gave each of them a piece of soap and a towel. Then they were pushed into the gas chamber. About two thousand persons could fit, but each disposed of no more space than was necessary to remain standing. To get such a mass into the room, there were repeated gun shots in order to force those who' were already inside to squeeze still closer. When everyone had entered, the heavy door was bolted. There were a few minutes of waiting, probably for the temperature in the chamber to reach a certain degree; then SS guards, wearing gas masks, climbed onto the roof, opened the windows, and threw in the contents of several tin cans: a preparation in powder form. The cans were marked "Zyklon" (insecticide); they were manufactured in Hamburg. The contents were probably a cyanide compound, which turned into a gas at a certain temperature. In three minutes all the inhabitants of the room were killed. Until now, upon reopening the gas chamber, there has never been a single body showing any sign of life, something which, on the contrary, occurred quite frequently at Birkenwald because of the primitive methods used there. The room was thus opened and ventilated, and the Sonderkommando began transporting corpses on flat carts towards ovens, where they were burned. »
I will add that this report by two young Slovakian Jews who had escaped from Birkenau[8] was published in Geneva in 1944. It was, that is, neither "a late addition," nor "composed under the surveillance of Polish jailers," nor Çvague and brief," nor "miraculously rediscovered" --as Faurisson claims of all the testimony with which he is confronted.[9] It strikes me, on the contrary, as astonishingly precise and written without passion by individuals from whom, at the time, a certain lack of composure might have been forgiven.
Let us examine now a bit more closely other "scientific" affirmations by R. Faurisson. I shall take only two examples:
Pitch Bloch, Ph. D.
Chemical Engineer
Federal Polytechnical School of Zurich
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