ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 1:51 pm
1. Zyklon B is not suitable for mass killing. It releases cyanide too slowly to kill people quickly in large numbers at the rate claimed (less than 20 minutes but about 5-10 minutes on average).
Hydrogen cyanide gas disrupts cellular respiration by binding to cytochrome c oxidase in mitochondria. This prevents cells from using oxygen, leading to rapid death, especially in high concentrations. In confined, sealed spaces (like the gas chambers at Auschwitz), death occurred in 5 to 15 minutes. The timing depended on factors like the size and ventilation of the chamber, number of victims (more people means more oxygen consumption), amount of Zyklon B used, and the temperature (affects how fast HCN is released).
Both Nazi SS officers and Sonderkommando survivors consistently reported that victims lost consciousness within minutes, with death occurring shortly after.
The Zyklon B was released gas quickly enough in warm, enclosed chambers. Zyklon B was chosen specifically because it was effective at killing large numbers of people in a short time. Over time, the Nazis refined the process for "efficiency", including heating the chambers or pre-warming the Zyklon to accelerate gas release.
2. The gas chambers were not airtight/sealed properly which would be necessary in order to kill people. The door in Krema I was a swinging door.
Krema I (in Auschwitz I) was the first stationary gas chamber used at Auschwitz and was later converted into a morgue at which point, many mass killings shifted to Birkenau (Auschwitz II), where Kremas II–V were purpose-built for mass extermination. Krema I’s original gas chamber was modified and not preserved exactly as it was during its use as a killing facility, which causes confusion today.
Krema I had a swinging wooden door, which would not be ideal for pressure sealing but it was retrofitted with latches and possibly rubber seals to improve gas retention. The gas chamber only needed to retain gas for 10–20 minutes which did not require hermetic sealing like in modern biohazard labs. Even though it did not use an airtight seal, the swinging door was adequate to do the job.
Separately, Zyklon B introduction vents are still visible in ruins of Krema II and III.
3. Leuchter went to Auschwitz and scraped brick and mortar samples from the site, sent them to a lab, and argued that low amounts of cyanide residue was evidence that genocidal gassings did not take place.
Leuchter expected hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to permanently bind to walls and leave large residues but HCN reacts differently to different building materials. It readily bonds with iron-based compounds in plaster and brick to form Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide).
The human gas chambers only used HCN for ~20 minutes per cycle while delousing chambers exposed walls to much higher concentrations for hours or days, allowing much more Prussian blue to form. The reduced level of cyanide in the gas chambers is in part expected due to much lower levels of exposure in a killing chamber versus a delousing chamber.
Chemist Dr. James Roth, whose lab tested the samples, later testified that you “You can't take samples from walls exposed to the elements for 40+ years and expect accurate cyanide detection." More rigorous studies—like those by Prof. Jan Markiewicz and the Auschwitz Museum (1994)—did detect cyanide residues in the gas chamber walls, supporting historical testimony.
Sources like "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers" by Jean-Claude Pressac and expert reports from the Irving v. Lipstadt trial (2000) have gone into much deeper technical detail on how it all worked. We can go also down that path if you feel it is necessary. But I'll wait on that.
4. Delousing chambers have blue staining (Prussian blue), but homicidal gas chambers do not—this supposedly proves they were never exposed to Zyklon B.
Similar to question above. Cyanide residues were found in the walls of the homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz and Birkenau. The length of exposure and conditions were not right for full staining, but there were residues.
5. Brickwork must be exposed to HcN to form PB. There are some instances of comparable chambers NOT exhibiting the blue staining, eg execution chambers in USA which are made of some sort of aluminium, or the degesch fumigation chambers which were professionally built.
This seems correct to me but maybe I am missing your point. HCN exposure alone isn’t enough to produce visible Prussian blue staining. Prussian blue only forms if (1) the walls contain iron compounds (e.g., iron oxides in the mortar, plaster, or brick), (2) the environment is alkaline, moist, and stable over time, and (3) the HCN is present in high concentration for extended periods.
6. Ventilation systems in the gas chambers were inadequate to clear toxic gas safely, so they must not have been used or were inadequate in terms of operation, placement, and purpose.
I disagree with the accuracy of this.
Technical details from Auschwitz blueprints among other sources show that the ventilation used forced-air systems that extracted poisoned air after each gassing. Zyklon B introduction shafts were in the roof; after gassing (~10–20 minutes), fans were activated to remove hydrogen cyanide gas. In the final step, airflow was directed through ventilation ducts, with motors and filters to hasten gas dispersal.
SS engineer Karl Bischoff’s correspondence provides very clear details on the ventilation and referred to Auschwitz as an extermination camp on 2 September 1942.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do ... -auschwitz
The Sonderkommando testimony corresponds to the SS correspondence as well. I expect this particular issue will require a further debate so I'll leave that be for now.
7. Zyklon B was supposedly dropped into the gas chambers through openings in the roof. David Irving and Germar Rudolf have claimed that there is no physical evidence of these holes in the ruins of the gas chambers, so the gas could not have been delivered in Krema II and III. The delivery mechanism for IV and V were allegedly through openings in the walls.
Historical documents, blueprints, and eyewitness testimony all describe the method of Zyklon B introduction Kremas II and III. Zyklon B pellets were poured in through four evenly spaced holes in the reinforced concrete roof of the underground gas chamber (Leichenkeller 1).
The roof of Leichenkeller 1 (gas chamber) at Krema II is now collapsed and in ruins. It's a chaotic field of broken concrete slabs—not an intact roof where original features are easily identifiable. Some of the roof is buried, cracked, or destroyed by the Nazis in 1945 when they tried to cover up the crime by dynamiting the structures. Despite this, several forensic investigators and researchers—including Prof. Robert Jan van Pelt—have identified at least one likely original hole in the collapsed roof of Krema II.
The logic here is fallacious. The Nazis destroyed evidence which doesn't change what happened. It just makes it harder to detect. Absence of evidence is not proof of absence. But supposedly some evidence of a hole was uncovered anyway.
8. Cyanide poisoning causes a bright red discoloration of the skin due to oxygen saturation, but survivors described corpses as blue or gray.
This is flawed logic and similar to the Prussian Blue argument. Even though cyanide sometimes turns victims bright red, it only does that under specific conditions. It does not always turn victims bright red.
Victims in the Auschwitz gas chambers—many of whom were starved, sick, dehydrated, and exposed to multiple causes of death—would not all show textbook symptoms. Survivor descriptions of blue or gray corpses are fully consistent with cyanide poisoning, hypoxia, physical crowding/asphyxiation, and postmortem changes. Even when bodies do turn red, the color fades quickly as decomposition starts and will turn gray/pale/blue.
9. If HCN was used extensively, there should be heavy corrosion or chemical burns in the gas chambers’ remnants (visible damage or alteration to building materials).
This doesn't seem like a big objection but HCN is not a strong acid or base and doesn’t corrode concrete, brick, or mortar under normal conditions. It’s a volatile organic compound (VOC) that dissipates quickly unless chemically bound.
