New Critique

[theyounghistorian77]

I've had a pop at this film on the forums, and now I'm turning said pop into a video



This is just Part 1. And I'm hoping to go through the movie and Part 2 is already in the works

Footnotes are included in the description, as i always do.

 

[theyounghistorian77]

Update: I'm still working on Part 2 and as my script has evolved it seems like in order to respond to one segment which I'm prepared to give a lengthy time addressing the early history of Zyklon B, or Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) to give it it's Scientific name or Prussic Acid as it's other nickname and why the Nazis chose the gas as a tool for murder. The following is the basis of my script but what i want to know is if any of you think the following is a fair amount of information for a general viewer, or whether the following would be too technical or too simplistic? Or should i expand on a few points?

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The film at one point seems to infer that Hydrogen Cyanide was discovered in the 1940's when in fact it was long known about as a rather hazardous to use insecticide in the 1920s. The proof of it's knowledge can be found in this technical manual by Gerhard Peters written in 1933 detailing it's use in Pest control.

"Zyklon" is in fact a brand name, given to the insecticide by a company called "Dagesh" set up in 1919 under the support of both the chemical company "Badische Anilin- & Sodafabrik (BASF)" And the Gold company "Deutsche Gold-und Silber-Scheideanstalt (Degussa)". The gas patented as "Zyklon" in 1920 came complete with an odorous marker as a warning system to prevent human poisoning. it was afterall, thought of to be used mainly in Agriculture. Obviously when the Nazis actually got around to using Zyklon as a tool for murder, the warning system was taken away as not to arouse suspicion.

Perhaps i should point out the difference between Zyklon A and Zyklon B; Zyklon A was the insecticide in a liquid form which when it reacts with Water, releases the Hydrogen Cyanide as the product. Zyklon B, patented in 1922, is the Hydrogen Cyanide adsorbed onto various substrates such as first diatomite and later on pellets of Gypsum, thus making the Hydrogen Cyanide much easier to store and to transport around, as it was done using steel cans.

So as i have demonstrated, the Gas was already long known before 1944, so why did the Nazis choose Zyklon B?

To cut the story short: for one thing, Zyklon B is very easy and inexpensive to make, consisting of hydrogen, Carbon and Nitrogen, all very common elements (if you want more details, than you should look at this technical essay from Nizkor.org). It is certainly much less expensive to make than bullets, which prior to 1941 at the very least, was the main way in which the Nazis took out their victims. As i have already alluded to, the technical innovations in the 1920's made Hydrogen Cynaide easier to store and transport around. Ian Kershaw also points out (See his "Nemesis", p483) that the Nazis wanted a method of mass murder that was less public and less stressful (for the murderers that is) than mass shootings. A method of using some form of poison gas had long been contemplated, indeed in East Prussia there were the roving Gas vans that redirected the Carbon Monoxide fumes into the back of the vehicle, suffocating whoever happened to be inside but they had their drawbacks (See Christopher Browning, "Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution", Chapter 3). Eventually in the Autumn of 1941 the Nazis decided to experiment In Auschwitz with a Gas that they had had previously been using since the June of that year for the purposes of "disinfection". they used this gas upon 600 Soviet prisoners of War along with 250 sick prisoners . That gas was Zyklon B (For more details, see Peter Longerich, "Holocaust: The Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews", p281) And once it had proven it's worth as a tool of mass murder in a confined space, the rest is, as they say, history.

 

[theyounghistorian77]

I want to talk about Shaw's link with the Eichmann trial which seems to be inferred in the film that there is one concerning the wording that Eichmann used. Apparantly Eichmann used the exact phrase "Humane gas" when referring to Zyklon B, in conjunction with Shaw's wishes that a humane gas be found to kill off prisoners.

I want a proper citation in order to make the link clearer, because the Eichmann trials are easily searchable online. And within them there is nothing to suggest Eichmann using the exact phrase "humane gas" and there's nothing, not in the trial at least to suggest he got his ideas from George Bernard Shaw and thus nothing in the trial to support the narrative of the Soviet Story. What is in the trial however Robert Servatius quoting a Red Cross report about a conversation Eichmann had with SS. Col Erwin Weinmann who was the head of security in Bohemia and Moravia. This report stated that Eichmann in the conversation revealed that he "believed that Himmler was currently envisaging humane methods." but Further down the report it says that "Eichmann himself did not entirely approve of these methods, but as a good soldier he naturally followed the Reichsfuehrer's orders blindly." As you can see if you follow the link, Eichmann went on to deny the exact wording of this report, stating that "The allegation that I said that Himmler's methods, which at that time would have tended towards humane methods, were not entirely approved by me, cannot be right, because I would definitely not have allowed myself to criticize one of my superiors before a foreigner."

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-082-01.html

Another item of interest is a memo from Rolf-Heinz Höppner to Adolf Eichmann containing the following words

"There is a danger that this winter we shall be unable to feed all the Jews. It is worth considering seriously whether it would not be the most humane solution to finish off the Jews, insofar as they are not fit to work, by some quicker method. At all events this would be more pleasant than to let them die of hunger."

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-006-007-008-06a.html
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-078-01.html

Given the context of where Höppner was at the time when he wrote that memo, it clearly refers to some contemplation of mass poisoning more efficient than starvation, even if the wording is a little vague. But again, there is no suggestion from this came directly from George Bernard Shaw.

And by the way, getting back to Shaw's remark he wasn't the only one to contemplate the use of Gas. After ww1, and in the context of his abdication, Kaiser Wilhelm II wrote to Field Marshal August von Mackensen, advocating a "regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" to get rid of Jews and further wrote that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other. I believe the best would be gas!" (source p210, 211.) But what I am not, repeat, not, going to do here is link the Kaiser ideas to Hitler's actions without substantive evidence. To do so would be to do what the film is doing which is to commit the genetic fallacy. What the Kaiser's remarks do show however is that such ideas as using gas were present to at least some degree on the German Right, even the traditionalist German Right. One has to be very meticulous in laying out the intellectual origins of the Holocaust. My point is that the film does not do this very well at all

 

[australopithecus]

Nicely done, dude. I confess I haven't watched all of part one yet, impressed so far.

 

[theyounghistorian77]

Nicely done, dude. I confess I haven't watched all of part one yet, impressed so far.

Thanks for that. I should have finished pt2 by now, but unfortunately sine really the October of last year i've been tied down with other priories. Nevertheless i have finished the script, the crucial parts being the above two posts which i would like a review of before i start recording. If you're OK with the content i'll be recording later today and perhaps tomorrow. So hopefully if all goes well Pt2 will be uploaded by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week

 

[malicious_bloke]

Interesting.

Btw, what was the source of this film? Was it made for TV in some country or other?

 

[theyounghistorian77]

Interesting.

Btw, what was the source of this film? Was it made for TV in some country or other?

It was originally made in Latvia under the tutelage of the "Union for Europe of the Nations" which is a very Right wing group in the European Parliament, but then redistributed to other nations. I've got my hands on a Polish one, and hence the Polish subtitles.