German Firm Is Cited as Top Producer of Death Camp Gas

German television reported Thursday that the chemical firm Degussa was primarily responsible for production of the gas used in Nazi death camp executions, not IG Farben as long held.

The report by the ARD television network is based on files recently made available in Poland.

Degussa, based in Frankfurt, declined to comment on the report’s specifics, pointing to a class-action suit charging it with willingly helping the Nazis produce Zyklon B cyanide tablets and assisting in processing gold seized from Jews. The suit, filed in the United States in August, seeks all of Degussa’s assets, which totaled about $2.1 billion at the end of the 1997 fiscal year.

Degussa and IG Farben owned equal 42.2% shares in Degesch GmbH, which delivered to the Nazis the Zyklon B used to gas hundreds of thousands of concentration camp inmates. IG Farben, a chemical company dissolved after the war, has long been identified as the chief producer of Zyklon B through a subsidiary.

But ARD, citing documents at the High Commission for Investigating Nazi Crimes in Poland, reported that Degussa’s sales division actually controlled Degesch, not IG Farben.