Re: creedal minimalism vs. Skeptic magazine

Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Wed, 25 Dec 1996 00:11:55 +0100 (MET)


On Tue, 24 Dec 1996 GBurch1@aol.com wrote:

> Sorry, I must have missed something. Is somebody here arguing that the Nazis
> didn't employ gas chambers to kill people in concentration camps? If so,WHY?

Of course concentration camps didn't have gas chambers. They had showers
and delousing. The latter was done mainly with Zyklon B, an I.G. Farben
product, which consisted of HCN absorbed on silicagel. Lice don't like
Zyklon B. Nazis were very clean and scientifically sophisticated
people, they invented such drastic insecticides as soman, sarin, and tabun.
(Not to forget Fritz Haber, the inventor of chemical warfare, but then,
we can't give him full credit, him being a Jew, and it was earlier).

Nazis also organized sight viewing for their guests, in windowless
buses, with ICE exhaust air conditioning. Lice didn't like that, either.

Nazis were extremely humane as well, they gave Jewish people whole
cities, all for themselves ("der F"uhrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt").
They made nice movies about that, too. Could you ask for more? They
allowed Jews to volunteer for medical experiments, so that Aryan fighter
pilots could better survive height asphyxation and waterings in
ice-cold water. Dr. Mengele even invented twin research, back then.
He also invented early heart treatments, by injecting liquid phenol
intracardially. Well, it was crude.

Nazis made the very best human microscopic preparates, very fresh,
you see. Nazis were good engineers, too: it is difficult to calculate a
crematorium oven to be self-sustaining, high water content of the human
body considered. They also invented early recycling, primarily
concentrating on teeth filling, and hair. Hair hydrolisate is rich in
lysine. They tried producing soap either, but it wasn't economical, so
they used it to impress their customers.

> I mean, really, WHY?

You better ask that Fred Leuchter, he should know. Methinks he made some
calculations on gas chamber throughput. Funny thing Fred is not well
liked in Germany, him being so good with medical machinery and
electrified furniture.

> GB

ciao,
'gene

P.S. I have been to Dachau, they had showers/deslousing there as well.
Hadn't time to use them, though.