Description:

SS GUIDE FOR THE USE OF POISON GAS 'ZYKLON B'
Excessively rare SS-issued instruction book which would serve as an early guide for the use of Zyklon B upon Jews and other unfortunates: 'Sterilization, Decontamination and Disinfection Employment Instructions for Hospital and Laboratory of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen-SS, Book 3', by Dr. Med. Walter Dotzer (Berlin: Verlag von Urban und Schwarzenberg), 1943. 116pp. 8vo., paper boards, with 29 illustrations and color chart showing 'Gas residue detection for prussic acid [Zyklon B]'. The detailed text concerns various pests and vermin that must be dealt with and the various means used to eliminate them, from x-rays to burning, hot or dry air, freezing, and poison gas, techniques of incineration, sterilization and disinfection, and includes the safe handling of Zyklon B and the certification of its handlers. One chapter is headed: 'Employment Regulations for Gassing of Buildings, Quarters, etc. with Zyklon-B', with illustrations of various structures and quarters and photographs of Zyklon B canisters being properly handled and opened. Preparations of the rooms, warning signs, equipment needed, gas storage, and post-gassing requirements are all discussed in detail. There are also detailed directions on the proper way to construct delousing facilities with exhaust, though they are described as 'saunas' - reminiscent of the gas chambers labeled as 'showers' to mislead the doomed. Zyklon B here is obviously intended for the purpose of de-lousing clothing, bedding and quarters, but it is well known that this guide book and later editions were widely used during the implementation of widespread gassings of Jews and others deemed undesirable. Covers a bit soiled with spine chipped, ownership signature to title page, else very good. WALTER DOTZER (1911-after 1956) was a German doctor, an SS 'hygienist', and SS-Sturmbannfuhrer. Joining the Waffen-SS in 1939,he travelled with SS doctor Andreas Schuller to Buchenwald to study a rampant dysentery outbreak. It was common in such studies to use prisoners in involuntary research. In 1943 Dotzer was named deputy bureau chief in the Main Command Office of the Medical Inspectorate of the Waffen-SS and while there he published this book. It was edited in 1944 by SS-Standartenfuhrer Joachim Mrugowski, later executed for human experimentation. It is particularly interesting that in the foreword of the book, Dotzer praises SS-Lt. Kurt Gerstein and Dr. Bruno Tesch for helping to edit the work. Dr. Tesch was hanged as a war criminal; there is little doubt that Gerstein faced the same fate when he was mysteriously found dead in captivity. Dotzer went free at war's end.

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November 29, 2023 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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