Re: Forensic Chemistry
Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2025 8:04 pm
"Zyklon B is not suitable for mass killing."
The American gas chambers used cyanide pellets, so I think cyanide would be a reasonable choice for a gas chamber. But I would expect some thought in the design so that the gas would sublimate, circulate, and ventilate efficiently. In the American procedure they would drop the pellets in sulfuric acid to accelerate the sublimation. And upon death they would use ammonia to help halt further release of gas.
The usual story had been that they just threw the pellets into the room (this is still alleged for Krema IV/V and elsewhere). Then in the late 80s they started saying they used special columns to remove the pellets. They say this to deal with the ventilation problem. But these Rube Goldberg-like Kula columns present a different problem. With Zyklon B, you are supposed to spread the pellets evenly throughout the room you are fumigating. If you have all the pellets clumped up in these columns at only four entry points in a 210 square meter room, the gas would not sublimate very well or circulate evenly. Keep in my as well that the "eyewitnesses" generally claim the gassings were very fast, even faster than the typical 10 minutes achieved in the American gas chambers. How is it that the Germans had such an inferior gas chamber design, yet were getting more effective results than the Americans? All while supposedly using very little gas so as not to leave any Prussian blue!
You can read more about the American gas chambers below. There's no reason the Germans would have had to have done everything the exact same way, but this should give you an idea of what a real gas chamber would be like and help you appreciate some of the design considerations.
https://www.ihr.org/books/kulaszka/31armontrout.html
And here is a thread on the ventilation.
https://codohforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=162
The American gas chambers used cyanide pellets, so I think cyanide would be a reasonable choice for a gas chamber. But I would expect some thought in the design so that the gas would sublimate, circulate, and ventilate efficiently. In the American procedure they would drop the pellets in sulfuric acid to accelerate the sublimation. And upon death they would use ammonia to help halt further release of gas.
The usual story had been that they just threw the pellets into the room (this is still alleged for Krema IV/V and elsewhere). Then in the late 80s they started saying they used special columns to remove the pellets. They say this to deal with the ventilation problem. But these Rube Goldberg-like Kula columns present a different problem. With Zyklon B, you are supposed to spread the pellets evenly throughout the room you are fumigating. If you have all the pellets clumped up in these columns at only four entry points in a 210 square meter room, the gas would not sublimate very well or circulate evenly. Keep in my as well that the "eyewitnesses" generally claim the gassings were very fast, even faster than the typical 10 minutes achieved in the American gas chambers. How is it that the Germans had such an inferior gas chamber design, yet were getting more effective results than the Americans? All while supposedly using very little gas so as not to leave any Prussian blue!
You can read more about the American gas chambers below. There's no reason the Germans would have had to have done everything the exact same way, but this should give you an idea of what a real gas chamber would be like and help you appreciate some of the design considerations.
https://www.ihr.org/books/kulaszka/31armontrout.html
And here is a thread on the ventilation.
https://codohforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=162