Wtf is this

[u/SeaworthinessCrazy33]

This makes me sick to my stomach

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[u/iambertan]

Is this a WWII poison? No knowledge on my part just picked up clues for context

[u/iisharkwolf → u/iambertan]

yes, the main poison used in the gas chambers

[u/iambertan → u/iisharkwolf]

That's messed up

[u/ClassicSuccess2650]

I only know what that is because of the 1993 movie falling down.

[u/kechones]

God damn, we’ve really fucked up our education system if people have never heard of Zyklon B. That’s really distressing.

[u/xoxoBug → u/kechones]

This got brought up in conversation somehow, I mentioned the name of the gas and I was looked at like some WWII history buff.

[u/Apart_Ad9308]

That’s what the Nazis used in the gas chamber.

[u/BackItUpWithLinks]

> wtf is this

Nazis.

[u/StarsofSobek]

It's hydrogen cyanide. It notoriously was used to gas/kill approximately 1.1 million people kept in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

When the canisters were opened, the pellets/crystallized hydrogen cyanide (HCN) within became liquid hydrogen cyanide, which reacted with the air and became a deadly gas. It was distributed by Degesche, a subsidiary for chemical conglomerate Degussa.

The first tests on prisoners began in Auschwitz - Birkanau camp, in the basement, where they murdered Soviets and Polish prisoners of war. Though, it was mostly later used to murder those who were Jews.

Before this, it was meant to be a delousing/sterilizing agent. A rodenticide. A pesticide. The important thing to the Nazis being: it was cheap and it was accessible.

It binds to cells and stops cells from using oxygen. Destroys the metabolic process. It led to internal suffocation. Initial exposure can cause vomiting, rapid heart rate, dizziness, hyperventilation; and, later exposure caused violent convulsions, asphyxiation, blood pressure drops, and respiratory failure. Excruciating and terrifying.

Truly evil. To think that anyone could joke about it is awful.

[u/ChefAsstastic]

Laughing at devices to kill people. We are so screwed.

[u/AntiAliveMyself]

Aint that the gas chamber stuff??? I hate people...

[u/SlidingOtter]

Zyklon B was originally developed as a pest control chemical. Pests such as lice, mice, bugs, it was a general fumigation chemical.

[u/Knight_Glint]

Originally it was a pesticide developed by Germans. Later the Nazis a modified version against the Jews.

That said, the chemistry on how it works is pretty brilliant.

[u/Immediate-Remove2174]

is that the WWII gas chamber stuff

[u/StarsofSobek → u/[deleted]]

Zyklon B was invented by a team of chemists. They worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry under Fritz Haber.

They were: Walter Heerdt, Bruno Tesch, and Gerhard Peters.

https://www.medlink.com/media/dlchw10

https://eucmh.com/2026/08/07/zyklon-b-from-pesticide-to-an-instrument-of-mass-murder/

'Walter Heerdt was named as the inventor in German patent DE 438818, filed on June 20, 1922, and published on December 27, 1926.'

Walter Heert was German, and not Jewish.

Bruno Tesch was German, and not Jewish.

Gerhard Peters was German, a proud Nazi supporter and party member, and was not Jewish.

[u/MrReckless327 → u/StarsofSobek]

I thought Fritz Haber was the one that invented it and he was Jewish

[u/StarsofSobek → u/MrReckless327]

You can read the history about Zyklon B in the links.

Haber is considered, "the father of chemical warfare," and his work (without his involvement) is what led to the development of Zyklon/Zyklon A/Zyklon B.

He did not invent it, though.

[u/MrReckless327 → u/StarsofSobek]

Yeah, I know he also invented the Haber method for extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere, helping create nitrogen fertilizer he used in World War I to make a bunch of bombs

[u/StarsofSobek → u/MrReckless327]

Haber Method, Haber's Rules, Born-Haber Cycle, and the Haber-Weiss reaction, all bear his name. Dude was a truly prolific chemist/scientist/electrochemist.

He was also Jewish, but(!) heavily identified with his Germanic heritage and preferred to lean into the latter. He was a German Nationalist up until the Nazi Party formed.