Rusted Can Of Zyklon B Poison Gas Found In Germany

Firefighters carry plastic bags in a garden in Preetz near Kiel, northern Germany, Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/dpa, Daniel Friederichs)

Workers clearing a small garden in northern Germany got a shock when they unearthed a rusted can labeled "Zyklon B" — the deadly poison gas used by the Nazis in the death chambers of Auschwitz and other camps.

Oliver Pohl, a spokesman for police in Kiel, said Wednesday the 150ml-200ml (5oz-7oz) can was unearthed during work Tuesday in the nearby town of Preetz.

Emergency crews determined the can was empty, but still sealed and removed it as a precaution.

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Pohl says even though Zyklon B achieved its notoriety through its use in the Holocaust, it was developed in the 1920s as a pesticide. It is known to have been used long ago as a pesticide in the Preetz garden and the can likely pre-dates the Nazi era.

According to wikipedia, Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), a warning eye irritant, and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is infamous for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder a million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.

In early 1942, Zyklon B emerged as the preferred killing tool of Nazi Germany for use in extermination camps during the Holocaust. The chemical claimed the lives of roughly a million people, most of whom died at Auschwitz. One of the co-inventors of Zyklon B, chemist and businessman Bruno Tesch, was executed in 1946 for knowingly selling the product to the SS for use on humans.