The Holocaust Historiography Project

Nazi poison gas Gas, Gas, Already yet!

reprinted with permission from FAEM April 1995

The TV-news jackals are all lathered up over the recent “gassing” in the Tokyo subways. The over-paid script-readers yammered their condemnations of “Nazi” nerve gases which caused a few deaths and some physical damage to a few thousand other Japanese ants. One lip-flapper even stated “The Nazis developed this gas (SARIN) to kill Americans.” Well shut ma’ mouf an’ wave da flag! The Nazis were a political party and they developed nothing in any scientific area. To call nerve gasses “Nazi” is no more valid than it is to call the Boeing B-17 (Flying Fortress) “Democratic” because American Democrats were in political power at the time of its development. Nerve gasses were developed by German chemists in a National Socialist political climate.

SARIN was discovered accidentally — period. A German chemist, Dr. Gerhard Schrader, during his work on pest control for the Nature-oriented (Nazi) agriculture business, developed an organic compound called “methyl-isopropoxyl-fluorophosphine oxide.” He sprayed a bit of it on some leaf lice and was astonished when the little critters died instantly. The chemical was indeed potent since a solution of only 1 part in 200,000 was used for the spray. This was on December 23, 1936.

Dr. Schrader, after accidentally coming in contact with the liquid, suffered a rapid contraction of his pupils, rendering him effectively blind. He also had a loss of hearing along with the loss of most of his muscular coordination. These disabilities also fell upon all of his assistants. The laboratory was closed down and it took nearly one month before any of the crew could function normally again.

SARIN is a volatile liquid which changes into a gaseous state, hence the term “nerve gas.” The “nerve” part comes from the fact that SARIN inhibits the body’s formation of cholinesterase. Cholinesterase is necessary to control a lethal build-up of another substance produced by the body — acetylcholine. Acetylcholine controls muscular contractions and if it weren’t “neutralized” after use, it would eventually produce massive muscular spasms due to its ever-increasing presence. When any so-called nerve gas enters the body, the immediate effects are pupil contraction and frothing at the mouth. This is followed by uncontrollable vomiting, twitching, and jerking — something like the antics observed at any “rock concert.” Within 10 minutes, violent convulsions produce death. Only 1/100 of a grain (as in sand) is needed to do an “Arnold” on anyone.

When the German military got wind of this development, they went into orbit with fantasies of “gassing” everyone. To be fair to the Germans, it should be mentioned that British and American military figures also cherished the idea of slaughtering their so-called enemies by the billions. That’s understandable. After all, the military, no matter which flag they are waving, are always interested in human slaughter and general destruction. That’s their business. Nothing personal — just business.

Adolf Hitler experienced the effects of mustard gas use during World War I and was a twice and highly-decorated war hero. He abhorred, as did Franklin Roosevelt, the idea of using poison gas during warfare. Of the “great leaders”, only Churchill (a drunk) and Stalin (a convicted criminal) rubbed their hands in glee over such prospects. Stalin didn’t have the means and Churchill was opposed by the British Cabinet, at least, in part. Churchill, forever the war’s most eloquent liar, described in a statement his desire, and vision, of Germans dying by the thousands in city after city. He wanted to “anthrax” the entire European continent but had to be satisfied with only a tiny island off the coast of Scotland for experimental purposes. Today, that island is still uninhabitable.

The proposed “gassing” of Iwo Jima was stopped cold by F.D.R. who also blocked a proposal for using poison gas against Japan proper. Hitler, in spite of recommendations, and insistence, from Hermann Goering, Robert Ley, and Martin Bormann, listened but never signaled approval. One could rightly wonder why those terrible Nazis, who were manufacturing TABUN, another nerve gas, by the tons, would stoop in atypical German-fashion, to using the insecticide ZYKLON-B to inefficiently “exterminate” hapless jews.

Chemically, TABUN is known as dimethyl-aminoethoxyl-cyanophosphine oxide. It is ten times more deadly than SARIN. Dr. Gerhard Schrader was also responsible for its development which was successful in the summer of 1939. Under the direction of Hermann Ochsner, a plant for its production was established in west Poland, that is, near the city of Dyhernfurth in Silesia. This was also the region where Soviet troops raped, mostly unto death, every German female from the age of 6 upwards (even elderly women in wheelchairs and the pregnant), during their “liberation” activities at the end of the war.

Although TABUN production was increasing, it was not without problems. TABUN is extremely corrosive and it was necessary to coat all steel retaining vessels with silver plate. By the summer of 1942, most of the problems were solved but not without massive injuries, and a few deaths, among the workers and technicians, in spite of the “over-kill” in protective clothing. At that time, it was estimated that the Germans possessed 70,000 to 250,000 tons of TABUN along with a considerable tonnage of SARIN.

At the close of the war, the German chemists were actively engaged in the development of SOMAN production. SOMAN, another organic chemical related to TABUN, was estimated to be 200 times more deadly than TABUN.

The Allied conquerors were astonished when the true magnitude of the German poison gas arsenal was known. Equally astounding, were the monumental technical advances made in virtually every scientific field. By the summer of 1945, the historically un-paralleled looting of German scientific achievements, by the Allies, was in full swing. It was a pirate operation of the first order.

If Hitler was the devil he was supposed to be, there wouldn’t have been any war, since any unleashing of TABUN and SARIN in 1940 would have forever removed any Soviet, or British, threat to continental Germany and America would have had a richer future due to a forced isolationism. As I have mentioned earlier, Mr. Hitler opposed the use of all poison gasses even though he gave approval for the stockpiling thereof. Mr. Roosevelt also gave approval for the stockpiling of poison gasses, although of the World War I variety — phosgene, mustard gas, etc. Even as late as 1952, American poison gas manufacture was in full swing. I worked at the U.S. Army’s Derby, Colorado, facility at that time and knew of the locations of tons of containers buried under the wheat fields of eastern Colorado.

TABUN had the code name “GA” while SARIN was coded “GB.” Tens of thousands of tons of these materials were dumped into the deep waters off the coast of Norway several years after the war. One may speculate as to the resulting effects when the containers finally decompose thus releasing these man-made substances into the Atlantic Ocean. Many containers arrived upon American shores, as part of the spoils of war, to be investigated and copied as we did of everything from rockets to VCRs. German scientific and technological developments, of that time, were absolutely overwhelming. The U.S. Army sacrificed hundreds of pigs, goats, cats, and dogs, in their macabre desire to observe, first-hand, the effects of these “wonder” killers. It has been rumored that hundreds of containers were dumped into the ocean only twenty miles off the coast of Washington State where environmentalists have observed “strange” fluids rising to the surface after these many decades.

Although World War II was the most barbaric in history, due to its accompanying technical devices, it possessed nothing unknown to the human experience. Ghengis Khan offered the “join me or die” option. We gave no option to the hundreds of thousands of German civilians who were burned alive in the Dresden and Hamburg raids, not to mention the instant roasting of the inhabitants of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The “death by napalm” treatment was not an option for the surrendering Japanese of the Pacific islands.

The Ancient Greeks also resorted to chemical warfare when they burned sulfur by the tons in order to rout an enemy with the irritating, and sometimes deadly, fumes. The French were known for their propensity for tossing rotted corpses into water supplies in order to poison them. During the French and Indian wars, the “civilized” French tossed clothing and blankets, from the victims of smallpox, at the “savages” in the hope that the Indians would catch the disease, which they did. There are no “nice guys” in any war in spite of the hoopla about the doling out of Hershey Bars.

The “Nazis developed this gas to kill Americans!” What absolute palaver! Then again, nothing more could be expected from people who are paid to read scripts instead of thinking for themselves, which in itself, probably would give them all a headache.