# Holocaust Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2001, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194 "2001-06-26T11:13:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/1 "2001-06-26T11:13:11Z")
Zyklon B: Exactly what was it and how did it work? I understand from the History Channel (a.k.a. “Hitler Channel”) that it (may) have been ceramic cubes impregnated with prussic acid. How did these cubes produce a posion gas? What kind of gas? I had been under the impression that Zyklon B was like whatever it is they use(d) in the CA gas chamber: Somekind of solid that had to be dropped into a liquid acid to disolve entirely into a toxic gas. (Please no “deniers” who want to say it was only for disinfection or whatever. I want the STRAIGHT Dope here.) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/2 "2001-06-26T11:29:43Z")
in 3 secs Google yields [http://www.stormfront.org/revision/ff5zyklonb.html](http://www.stormfront.org/revision/ff5zyklonb.html) Name HCN, hydrocyanic acid; prussic acid Boiling point 25.7 C / 78.3 F at 760 mm Hg Specific gravity 0.69 at 18 C / 64 F Vapor density 0.947 (air = 1) Melting point -13.2 C / 8.2 F Vapor pressure 750mm Hg at 25 C / 77 F 1200mm Hg at 38 C /100F Solubility in water 100% Appearance clear Color slightly bluish Odor bitter almond, very mild, non-irritating (odor is not considered a safe method of determining presence of the poison) Hazards 1. Unstable with heat, alkaline materials and water 2. Will explode if mixed with 20% sulfuric acid. 3. Polymerization (decomposition) will occur violently with heat, alkaline material or water. Once started, reaction is autocatalytic and uncontrollable. Will explode. 4. Flash point: -18 C / 0 F 5. Autoignition temperature: 538 C / 1000 F 6. Flammable limits in air volume % lower 6 upper 41 “TOXICITY: No thoroughly effective pesticide is known to exist which could be considered to be harmless to human beings or mammals. Fatal concentrations of HCN impede or completely cut off the oxygen supply to the cells. The poison can enter the body in three ways: through the mouth, the respiratory organs, or the pores of the skin. The latter will occur in particular if the body is exposed to high concentration for any length of time and in unfavourable conditions (great heat).” etc. note: While the technical description of Zyklon B is (seemingly) correct in looking at the home of this info it appears to be a so called “white nationalist” (ie “we hate everybody”) site so venture at your own risk. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/3 "2001-06-26T14:02:53Z")
Zyklon B is diatomite (a porous stone used in industry) treated with prussic (hydrocyanic) acid. Here’s an encyclopedia article on Hydrogen Cyanide. [http://www.bartleby.com/65/hy/hydrogn-cy.html](http://www.bartleby.com/65/hy/hydrogn-cy.html) In the sane world, livestock are most at risk for prussic acid poisoning. When sorghum is exposed to climactic conditions like drought, it synthesizes prussic acid. Cattle then graze the sorghum and die. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/4 "2001-06-26T17:50:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > \*\*[this]appears to be a so called “white nationalist” (ie “we hate everybody”) site so venture at your own risk. \*\* And, man, that is one **nasty** site… ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/5 "2001-06-27T11:21:31Z")
So what I then understand is that Zyklon B is diatomite (I guess something like diatomatious earth made into a hard substance) impregnated with prussic acid. To do the murders, they poured it out of the containers and… into pans of water above the fake shower heads? Or just let it set there and produce the gas from the humidity in the air reacting with the prussic acid? I’m not planning on doing any gas chambers or anything. I was just morbidly curious as to how this worked. Is this in essence the same method the CA gas chamber used? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/6 "2001-06-27T12:04:23Z")
According to the book I’m reading, (Why people believe weird things), Zyklon B was kept in tin cans. The operators would open holes in the roof of a killing room, put on their gas masks, dump in the Zyklon and close the holes. Doctors were standing by with oxygen in case the murderers got a whiff too much. Zyklon wasn’t the fastest acting thing around, according to the accounts, but it’s not like they were accurately measuring things out either. I’m pretty sure there weren’t any actual shower heads involved. The rocks were just dumped into the killing chamber. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-question/70194/7 "2001-06-27T13:35:55Z")
You can go to the site for the [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org/) and search for “zyklon”. You’ll get pictures of Zyklon-B canisters, plus other info such as this: > [@](#): > > As victims were “unloaded” from cattle cars, they were told that they had to be disinfected in “showers.” The Nazi and Ukrainian guards sometimes shouted at and beat the victims, who were ordered to enter the “showers” with raised arms to allow as many people as possible to fit into the gas chambers. The tighter the gas chambers were packed, the faster the victims suffocated. > > . . . > > At the Auschwitz camp in Poland, they conducted experiments with Zyklon B (previously used for fumigation) by gassing some 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 ill prisoners in September 1941. **Zyklon B pellets, converted to lethal gas when exposed to air.** They proved the quickest gassing method and were chosen as the means of mass murder at Auschwitz. At the height of the deportations, more than 12,000 Jews were gassed each day at Auschwitz.