The German gas warfare program was headed by Fritz Haber (1868 – 1934) whose first try for a weapon was chlorine, which he debuted at Ypres in April 1915. Thus, tear gas was never very effective as a weapon against groups of enemy soldiers. Symptoms usually resolve by 30 minutes after contact. If inhaled they also make breathing difficult. Large doses can cause temporary blindness. As lachrymatory agents, they irritate the eyes and cause uncontrolled tearing. The agent used was either xylyl bromide, which is described as smelling ‘pleasant and aromatic’, or ethyl bromoacetate, described as ‘fruity and pungent.’ Both are colorless liquids and have to be atomized to be dispersed as weapons. Several chemicals were weaponized in WWI and France actually was the first to use gas - they deployed tear gas in August 1914. Masked soldiers charge through a cloud of gas. Production of some of these dangerous chemicals continues to this day as they have peaceful uses – for example, phosgene (carbonyl dichloride) is an industrial reagent, a precursor of pharmaceuticals and other important organic compounds. It has occasionally been used since then but never in WWI quantities. Thus, chemical warfare with gases was subsequently absolutely prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Although chemical warfare caused less than 1% of the total deaths in this war, the ‘psy-war’ or fear factor was formidable. One of the enduring hallmarks of WWI was the large-scale use of chemical weapons, commonly called, simply, ‘gas’. While the efficiency of maiming and killing steadily advanced from the 17th to the 20th centuries it accelerated by an order of magnitude in WWI with the use of inhaled poison gasses. Ultimately, in WWII it was demonstrated that a single atomic weapon could kill more than one hundred thousand of the enemy with a single use of a single weapon. Gun powder in the 16th and 17th centuries meant that - finally, sadly - one could eliminate many of his enemies with one agent of offensive effort, an artillery round. Army Veteran, and WW-I Feature WriterĮvery war brings to the fore a new way of maiming and killing soldiers. “KL Auschwitz seen by the SS Hoess, Broad, Kremer”, second edition, Museum w Oswiecimu, 1978, pp. Now we had the gas, and we had established a procedure.” It would be by gas, but we did not know which gas and how it was to be used. I must even admit that this gassing set my mind at rest, for the mass extermination of the Jews was to start soon, and at that time neither Eichmann nor I was certain as to how these mass killings were to be carried out. A short, almost smothered cry, and it was all over…. In the crowded cells, death came instantaneously the moment the Zyklon B was thrown in. Protected by a gas mask, I watched the killing myself. “The gassing was carried out in the detention cells of Block 11. Snyder, Professor of History, The City College and The City University of New York. Taken from the Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, by Dr. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy, but the foul and nauseating stench from the continued burning of bodies permeated the whole area and all the people living around Auschwitz knew what was going on.” Frequently women would hide their children under their clothes, but we found them and we sent the children to be exterminated. Of course, at times they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties. “We tried to fool the victims into believing that they were going through a delousing process. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold teeth of the corpses.” We usually waited for half-an-hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. It took from 3 to 15 minutes to kill the people in the death-chamber, depending on climatic conditions. Rudolf Hoess testified at Nuremberg: “When I set up the extermination building at Auschwitz, I used Zyklon B which was crystallized prussic acid which we dropped into the death-chamber from a small opening. The … gas chambers could accommodate 2,000 prisoners at one time. At the height of its activity Auschwitz could house more the 100,000 men and women and could provide for the gassing and incineration of 12,000 prisoners a day…. Auschwitz was the most notorious of the extermination centers. Return to The Aftermath | Facts The Gas ChambersĪt the fulcrum of the extermination system in Poland were the camps at Auschwitz, Maidanek, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, and Sobibor….
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