Bitter Almond (Auschwitz 1942)
Willkommen. As there is no panel review queued for this evening, we figured to address instead a query received regarding almond oil, the oily sort — no, it’s not toxic, but the essential oil is another story, albeit everything in the marketplace is rectified. Shall we have a little talk about this?
“So, before there was Life on Earth, early appearing organic compounds were derived by condensation of hydrogen cyanide, a molecule that was to take on, a few billion years hence, quite a number of diverse duties,” Saffron sets up the matter at hand.
Pardon me this unsettling yet pertinent excursus, concerning Jews who were transported by rail from Europe to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942.
Over several months, the thousands who arrived were initially herded onto a wooden Judenrampe for selection, those ticketed for death taken to a couple of remote converted farmhouses, referred to as the little red house (with brick walls) and the little white house (with plastered walls). These served as provisional chambers for extermination with hydrocyanic acid (hydrogen cyanide), presaging larger-scale operations to come.
In his diary, touching on the approach to these two dwellings, Höss the camp commandant described how men and women unsuspectingly walked to their death through an orchard of blossom-laden fruit trees.
“It appears that the two gassing bunkers were surrounded by wooded countryside consisting of poplar and birch stands, and in particular, drupaceous species (stone fruit trees) of the Rosaceae, which would have been in bloom that spring.”
The two country cottages had signs on their doors that read zum Baden (to the baths). Their aging thatched roofs were propped up by wooden ceilings that were reinforced and made airtight. The windows were bricked over and had small swinging wood planks that sealed at the edges with felt. The floors were strewn with sawdust, as there was no plumbing and so no water to clean the messes.
“It appears that the victims passed under cherry and plum trees, which were broadcasting shares of various shikimate volatiles along with abundant low-molecular-weight terpenoid metabolites, including carotenoid degradation products. Some nitrogenous components were probably given off as well. And surely also, those familiar bitter-almond-toned principles: benzenoid aldehyde, aka benzaldehyde, prone to sway a given bouquet, issues a curiously similar heliotropin-like or soft hawthorne aroma as does hydrogen cyanide, though the olfactive character of the latter compound is slightly more ligneous and delicate.”
Hydrogen cyanide in concentration is an effective fumigation agent used by people against lice and many other vermin. Historically known as prussic acid, the insecticide was marketed for use in death camps under the brand name Zyklon-B.
“So then … that foreboding floral perfume, the distinguishing vaporous transmission wafting among those being marched to their murder, the fragrant sweet-and-creamy evocation of marzipan, slightly balsamic owing to the oxidation of benzaldehyde to yield esters of benzoic and cinnamic acids, foreshowed the chemical carnage impending.”
Since there was no plumbing, gassing was carried out in the dark of night to minimize panicked yelling and attempts to escape by captives who might notice that the communal showers weren’t actual showers. The Jews were told that they needed to undergo delousing, to undress and to remember the spot where they left their effects. Then they were directed, often with clubs and leashed police dogs, into one of the structures (as many as eight hundred at a time in the little white house and twelve hundred in the little red house).
“Fruits of trees assigned to the genus Prunus are termed drupes, characterized by a bone-hard pit of lignified endocarp tissue (inner ovary layer) enclosing a single seed. In this kernel’s interior are cell vacuoles containing sequestered molecules of the cyanogenic glycoside, amygdalin, which is considered a phytoanticipin, a plant defensive compound in place, awaiting activation. The trigger in Nature would normally be tissue damage caused by some creature with a strong jaw and hard teeth and an appetite for seed cake.”
Amygdalin, a bitter-tasting white crystalline chemical broker of life and death.
“In fruits, the glycosidically mediated biological security system at the ready relies on a coupling process: a detonating action — in Nature, it would usually be an invasive disturbance — brings the water-soluble amygdalin into contact with enzymes that catalyze a hydrolytic cleavage — in Nature, animal saliva would satisfy the reaction’s requirement of water — yielding glucose and … benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, the associating perfume and perfumed poison, the metabolic twosome and olfactory tweedledee and tweedledum.”
After the doors were bolted shut, gas-tight tins (with the Giftgas warning labels removed) containing the delivery system of small pellets of impregnated silica gel were opened, and the Zyklon-B poured into the wall hatches, upon which the lethal vapors along with the ethereal fragrancy of cherry amaretto would radiate.
“This substance, amygdalin, lurks in tissues of quite a number of plants. It is found only as traces in domesticated sweet almonds, whereas the bitter variety and wild forms harbor more substantial amounts, so consequently those are potentially toxic and their sale restricted in the United States. Yet the barred nuts are still procured (apricot kernels similarly) from various purveyors like health food stores, for unsanctioned medicinal and culinary applications, such as the tradition-faithful preparation of marzipan. (The recipe passed down has us grind into a paste ninety-nine percent sweet with a smidgen of aromatic bitter almonds. We’re instructed not to worry over any peril of poison as the tiny fraction of hydrocyanic acid in the doughy confection becomes negligible by its exposure to air. Of course, the widely available inauthentic rendition today is flavored instead with synthetic benzaldehyde.)”
After a few minutes of screaming and seizures and retching, when the commotion died down, an SS man wearing a gas mask would review the scene through a peephole. (Early attempts were bungled miscalculations, but eventually, after several messy trials, the optimal amount of prussic acid was administered.) The Sonderkommando cleaned the chambers of blood and excrement, but would first need to disentangle the bluish or pink-hued bodies, which were often clinging to each other, half-squatting as there was no space to fall down. Sometimes there was green or yellowish frothy bile smeared and dripping all over the place. Then they loaded the dead onto carts and dumped them into nearby long burial pits near pine trees.
“Bitter-almond essential oil is obtained by means of steam distillation of press cake remaining after water maceration of the partially deoleated seeds, often from other Prunus like peach or plum or apricot. Of the distillate, the larger proportion of hydrocyanic acid is contained within the hydrolat, or hydrosol, which is the watery portion. Nonetheless, even ten drops of the potent metabolite can induce convulsions if ingested, so the five percent or less lurking in the volatile oil renders it dangerously toxic. The old labels FFPA (free from prussic acid) would indicate that hydrogen cyanide had been removed by treatment with calcium hydroxide and ferrous sulphate.”
Later, on account that they were contaminating the ground water, the putrefying corpses in the mass graves were exhumed and incinerated on pyres. And the two farmhouses became converted again, this time to be used as undressing rooms for those who would subsequently be shot and hurled immediately thereafter onto the flames, often while still alive.
“These days bitter-almond oil is more frequently concocted from a petroleum precursor like toluene. The FFC (free from chlorine) label is a sure indication of such synthesis. And much as it is widely considered a mono-component oil, like wintergreen (composed of methyl salicylate) or ho leaf (of linalol), a genuine bitter-almond oil that reflects chemical profiles of actual wild plants is not purely benzaldehyde — no way — not at all, err, not all of it — there are other molecules contained, even if only in traces.”
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun died by taking pills of hydrogen cyanide. Those that later handled their bodies reported an odor of bitter almonds.
