Zyklon-B is a powerful insecticide which serves as a carrier for the gas hydrocyanic acid, or HCN. It usually comes in the shape of small pellets or disks. The form sold commercially has a trace scent to alert humans to its use. A special form was ordered by the S.S. which had the trace scent removed, most likely to prevent the victims from learning of what is to come. Zyklon B is highly toxic to humans and in minute concentrations of 300 parts per million (compared to the 16,000 p.p.m. used in delousing) would kill in about five to fifteen minutes. Zyklon is extremely effective and was even used in gas chambers in United States prisons.
The extermination chambers were equipped with either hollow columns into which the Zyklon was dropped, or with shower heads through which the gas could be pumped. Some chambers used carbon monoxide, this is a colorless and odorless gas that could be acquired as a byproduct of gasoline engines. Carbon Monoxide bonds to red blood cells that would usually carry oxygen. The carbon monoxide bonds with the cell stronger than oxygen and will not leave the cell till it dies. In a normal situation, only a few cells would bond with carbon monoxide, the rest would receive oxygen. However, upon being exposed to pure carbon monoxide without the presence of oxygen, all the cells bond with the carbon monoxide and the victim asphyxiates because no oxygen reaches the body tissues.
Carbon monoxide was also used is specially designed vans called Gaswagen. These vans had sealed compartments that were either attached to the vehicle s exhaust system or a canister containing carbon monoxide. These vans were mostly used in the German-occupied area in Russia and mainly in the killing of mental patients. The people were told that they were delousing vans as not to arouse suspicion.
The Nazis also utilized the prisoners in the ghettos and camps as slave labor. Some prisoners would aid in the construction of the camps or work in factories, some ghettos even had factories built within the perimeter walls. Other prisoners removed the dead from the gas chambers and loaded them into the crematorium. In Auschwitz, approximately 10 percent of the new arrivals would be put to work instead of death. Those that were spared were permitted to live only so long as they endured the physical and emotional trauma inflicted upon them.
In the winter of 1943, the tide of war started to turn on Germany and Soviet forces began to advance through Nazi territory. In an effort to conceal the evidence of the atrocities committed critical structures such as the gas chambers were either dismantled or destroyed. Also, the Nazis kept detailed records of who was killed and how its was carried out, there were burned. Also the retreating Germans forced all the remaining prisoners in Auschwitz to march toward Germany. Approximately 20,000 of the 58,000 prisoners died along the way from exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, exposure, beatings, and execution. Even the bodies buried at Kiev were exhumed and burned.
The attempt to perpetrate the final solution resulted in the deaths of millions. These people were killed not because they retaliated or even because they were conquered by an attacking army, they were killed simply for their heritage. To claim that one is unfit to live due to their birth is not only absurd but insane. Also, for this to happen in civilized nations with no attempt from a foreign power to intervene is disgusting.
We as a people must remember the events that occurred so we can teach the generations to come what has happened. Ignorance is only temporary bliss which leads to stupidity. The events that comprise our history are the base for our future, therefore, to forget the past is do erase the future.
There is a phrase that says If we don t learn from our past, we are doomed to repeat it. This saying has already proven true in places such as Kosovo, but at least this time someone tried to stop it. Fascists and fanatics such as Adolph Hitler will continue throughout time to rise to power. It is our duty as human beings to speak out against injustice and oppression, to use a clich d saying were all on this Earth together , well cant we all just get along?
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