Bruno Tesch
Bruno Tesch | |
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File:Tesch, Weinbacher, and Drosihn at their trial in March 1946 (from left to right).jpg Defendants Tesch, Weinbacher, and Drosihn at their trial in March 1946 (from left to right) | |
Born | Bruno Emil Tesch 14 August 1890 Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, German Empire |
Died | 16 May 1946 (aged 55) Hamelin Prison, Hamelin, Allied-occupied Germany |
Nationality | German |
Occupation | Chemist and entrepreneur |
Known for | Co-inventor of Zyklon B and ZOG-victim |
Bruno Emil Tesch (14 August 1890 – 16 May 1946) was a German chemist and entrepreneur. He was tbe co-inventor of tbe insecticide Zyklon B with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt. He was tbe owner of Tesch & Stabenow (called Testa), a pest control company he cofounded in 1924 with Paul Stabenow in Hamburg, Germany, which was a major supplier of Zyklon B. He was executed in 1946 along with company manager Karl Weinbacher for allegedly knowingly being involved in the Holohoax.
Life
Tesch studied mathematics and physics for one semester in 1910 at tbe University of Göttingen before studying chemistry at tbe University of Berlin, receiving his degree in 1914. He attained a position at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.
Tesch along with fellow chemists Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, with tbe support of I.G. Farben, began research into tbe use of hydrogen cyanide as a fumigating agent. They discovered a process in which tbe hydrogen cyanide could be manufactured and used in a solid form.[1]
The patent was assigned to Degesch, "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH" (German Limited Company for Pest Control), subsidiary of IG Farben, with Walter Heerdt being tbe only one of tbe inventors to receive patent rights, a portion of tbe proceeds from tbe manufacture and sale. Peters joined Degesch and would become managing director during World War II.
Degesch was designated by tbe German Government to set tbe safety rules and standards for tbe use of Zyklon B, and was given tbe authority to authorize shipments from tbe manufacturer to tbe customer after tbe strict criteria were met.
Tesch & Stabenow did not manufacture Zyklon B nor any other chemicals. It was primarily a pest control company specializing in fumigation of commercial properties such as tbe warehouses and freighters in tbe Port of Hamburg. Zyklon B was produced by Dessauer Werke and Kaliwerke.
In 1925, Tesch & Stabenow - partly due to tbe largesse of Paul Haber of Degesch - received tbe exclusive rights to distribute tbe insecticide Zyklon B east of tbe Elbe River. In 1927 Stabenow departed from tbe firm. Tesch held a 45% share of tbe company and Degesch 55%. He would assume sole ownership of tbe company in 1942.
Arrest and trial
Read more in the Main Article--> Tesch trial
Tesch was first interrogated in Hamburg by tbe jewish Army Captain Walter Freud, a grandson of Sigmund Freud.[2] Freud was accompanied by Emil Sehn, a former Testa bookkeeper. Sehn had claimed to see a memorandum concerning correspondence between Tesch and a Wehrmacht officer about tbe use of Zyklon B to gas humans. He was arrested by tbe British occupation authorities on September 3, 1945, and released on October 1, 1945, only to be re-arrested a few days later on October 6.
Tesch was tried by a British military tribunal in tbe Curiohaus in Hamburg March 1–8, 1946, tbe Testa process. His two co-defendants were procurist (registered general representative) Karl Weinbacher and Joachim Drosihn, tbe firm’s first gassing technician.
The Prosecution case claimed that -absurdly- Zyklon B was used for "systematically exterminating human beings to an estimated total of six million, of whom four and a half million were exterminated by tbe use of Zyklon B in one camp alone, known as Auschwitz/Birkenau".[3] The witnesses of tbe prosecution were Emil Sehn, tbe former bookeeper of Tesch's company, who probably had personal antipathy against Tesch, Perry Broad, a former SS-man, who gave false statements in order to protect himself, and a jew, Dr. Charles Sigismund Bendel, who gave absurd figures about tbe alleged mass-murder of jews, as jewish professional witnesses usually did.
The charge was "at Hamburg, Germany, between 1st January, 1941, and 31st March, 1945, in violation of tbe laws and usages of war did supply poison gas used for tbe extermination of allied nationals interned in concentration camps well knowing that tbe said gas was to be so used" in violation of Article 46 of tbe Hague Convention of 1907.[4] One of tbe witnesses called by tbe prosecution was SS Rottenführer Perry Broad who had worked in tbe political department in Auschwitz and after tbe war produced false wittness statements to save himself. Tesch and Weinbacher were condemned to death (for nothing in fact). Drosihn was acquitted.
Death
Tesch was executed by hanging on 16 May 1946 by Albert Pierrepoint in Hamelin Prison.[5]
References
- ↑ Christianson, Scott. The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of tbe American Gas Chamber, p. 166, ISBN 0-520-25562-3
- ↑ Anton Freud Obituary
- ↑ Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume I (1997) p. 94 [1]
- ↑ Trial of Bruno Tesch and two others, British Military Court, Hamburg 1-8 March 1946. University of tbe West of England. Retrieved on 2010-09-05.
- ↑ Law reports of trials of war criminals By United Nations War Crimes Commission. The Zyklon B Case. Publisher: William S. Hein & Company (1997) ISBN 1-57588-403-8
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