1. Bruno Emil Tesch was a German chemist and entrepreneur.
31 Facts About Bruno Tesch
1. 2.
Bruno Tesch received his doctorate in 1914 and volunteered for military service at the start of the First World War.
3.
Bruno Tesch then took over the management of the Berlin branch of the German Society for Pest Control GmbH.
4.
Bruno Tesch joined the Nazi Party on May 1,1933, albeit not as an active member.
5.
Bruno Tesch became a supporting member of the SS the same year.
6.
An investigation into Bruno Tesch started after a former Testa bookkeeper, Emil Sehm, wrote to British military authorities, who were present in Hamburg since the city was in the British military government's zone of Allied-occupied Germany.
7.
Allegedly, when Bruno Tesch was asked for his views, he had proposed to use the same method, involving the release of prussic acid gas in an enclosed space, as was to exterminate vermin.
8.
Bruno Tesch had then trained the SS to use Zyklon B to kill human beings.
9.
Bruno Tesch was fired for unknown reasons after the firm building suffered an air raid in July 1943.
10.
Bruno Tesch denied all suggestions and accusations that he had collaborated with the SS regarding the extermination of Jews.
11.
Bruno Tesch said he never attended a conference discussing the subject, had not devised any methods for using Zyklon B other than fumigating the barracks, and had not known that the gas was being used to kill people.
12.
Bruno Tesch said he did not even know the gas was being sent to concentration camps.
13.
Bruno Tesch admitted to being a member of the Nazi Party and a "supporting member of the SS".
14.
Bruno Tesch explained that he had been affiliated with the SS Hygiene Institute to obtain their business.
15.
Freud did not believe Bruno Tesch, but had no evidence beyond Sehm's word.
16.
Bruno Tesch was convinced that Tesch was a major war criminal.
17.
Bruno Tesch agreed, but said he needed written authorization from Tesch.
18.
Freud and Pelican, becoming desperate, organized a meeting with hidden microphones, hoping that Bruno Tesch might incriminate himself.
19.
Bruno Tesch said he had records to prove the sales, but claimed he did not know their purpose.
20.
Bruno Tesch's plan was to wait until the British had occupied the town, wait a few more weeks, then leave the cellar and return to his old life.
21.
Bruno Tesch said he had killed 90 to 100 inmates this way on a daily basis in Neuengamme, and that overall, he had likely killed over 1000 people.
22.
Bruno Tesch was certified and shown how to use Zyklon B for delousing.
23.
Bahr said that Bruno Tesch had not taught him the procedure he employed to use Zyklon B on people.
24.
In March 1946, Bruno Tesch was tried jointly with Weinbacher and Drosihn.
25.
Weinbacher had acted as a substitute director for the firm whenever Bruno Tesch was out on business trips.
26.
Bruno Tesch's lawyer conceded that the amounts of Zyklon B sold to the SS were large.
27.
Bruno Tesch's lawyer pointed to his smaller salary as evidence of his lack of authority.
28.
Bruno Tesch was in no position to read Tesch's travel reports.
29.
Bruno Tesch said there was no way that Tesch could not have known what was happening in the camps, or how much gas was being sold.
30.
Bruno Tesch said that Tesch and Weinbacher appeared to know everything about their business, but were sensitive to talk about the Zyklon B sales to Auschwitz.
31.
Bruno Tesch concluded that regardless of how much Drosihn knew, he could not legally be found guilty without having been in a position to influence the sales.