For what purpose was, and is, this gas manufactured?
28. For what purpose was, and is, this gas manufactured?
The IHR says:
For the extermination of the typhus-bearing louse. It is used to fumigate
clothing and quarters. It is readily available today.
Nizkor replies:
That's right. But it was also used to kill people on a massive scale.
HCN (hydrocyanic acid, the gas released by Zyklon-B) has a "side
effect" which the SS found very useful: it kills human beings
quite well.
In fact, the same concentration kills humans and other mammals much
faster than it kills lice and bugs. The concentration used for
delousing, 8-10 grams per cubic meter, kills humans very
quickly, though it takes up to 32 hours to get rid of bugs and clothes
moths. Even when a lower concentration is used, death comes swiftly.
In fact, HCN is used to kill people in gas chambers today, in the
United States.
A rather technical
paper
on the nature and mechanism of cyanide is available.
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