Bruno Emil Tesch was a German chemist and entrepreneur. Together with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, he invented the insecticide Zyklon B. He was the owner of Tesch & Stabenow, a pest control company he co-founded in 1924 with Paul Stabenow in Hamburg, Germany. During the Holocaust, Tesch sold vast quantities of Zyklon B, utilizing his pesticide as a way to commit genocide. Over 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis using Zyklon B.
Tesch in British custody, 1945
Empty poison gas canisters, of Zyklon B, found by the Russians at the end of World War II in Auschwitz
(From left to right) Tesch, Weinbacher, and Drosihn at their trial in March 1946
Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consists of hydrogen cyanide, as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is notorious for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately 1.1 million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.
Zyklon labels from Dachau concentration camp used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials; the first and third panels contain manufacturer information and the brand name, the center panel reads "Poison Gas! Cyanide preparation to be opened and used only by trained personnel"
A fumigation team in New Orleans, 1939. Zyklon canisters are visible.
Empty Zyklon B canisters found by the Allies at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945
Rudolf Höss at his trial in Poland, 1947
