Zyklon B ( ; also spelled Cyclon B or Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in the early 1920s and infamous for its later use by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust. Zyklon B consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), a stabilizer, a warning odorant (ethyl bromoacetate), and one of several adsorbents.
Zyklon A was a previously produced liquid pesticide, which released hydrogen cyanide in a chemical reaction with water. After the invention of Zyklon B, its production was stopped.
One of the co-inventors of Zyklon B, the chemist and businessman Bruno Tesch, was executed by the British in 1946 for his role in the Holocaust.
Read more about Zyklon B: History, Production and Marketing, Mechanism
Famous quotes containing the word zyklon:
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—Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932)