14.000 Chapter 5.
The delousing and disinfestation installations of BW 5a and 5b in KGL
Birkenau. This chapter needs some clarification.
- Hydrogen Cyanide will always leave blue stains if it
is effectively used, unless the walls are painted steel or of some other
inert, non-porous material and washed down with ammonia or bleach after
every usage. The execution time may be only five minutes but his is after
the gas has sublimated, which requires heat, and the additional time of
several hours for venting. In the United States it takes at least twenty
minutes to ventilate a much smaller chamber (600 cf) and a much smaller
dosage is used. The walls are then washed. As usual, Mr. Pressac is in
error. His description is both impractical and impossible.
- It should be noted that Pressac claims that an alleged
gassing utilized 1% or 10,000 ppm of HCN in air. This being some forty
times the lethal dosage. In U.S. gas chambers 0.320% or 3200 ppm of HCN
in air is used as the dosage. This means that the Germans allegedly utilized
some 3.125 times the overkill dosage used in the U.S. U.S. gas chambers
contain all non-porous surfaces (painted steel) and must be washed with
bleach after each execution. The normal exposure time is fifteen minutes
to the HCN and all surfaces must be washed with bleach to prevent staining
and corrosion. This is even with a preheated air intake to prevent condensation.
It seems that the NAZIS were able to suspend the laws of nature to prevent
staining.
- A photo #6 (page 59) has an erroneous explanation. Pressac
claims that because of the short exposure time and low temperature the
HCN would only have had time to leave traces on metal hardware and not
the brick and mortar. This is incorrect. We know from experience that brick
and mortar will pick up cyanide quicker than metal. Mr. Pressac seems to
have his facts backward, again. I would suggest that he study the American
Execution System to see what really occurs. The concept that delousing
gassings leave blue stains and people gassings do not, is ludicrous.