Talk:Otto Ambros

details

I have added some key details from other articles about his career, as well as a picture of Monowitz where he worked. 86.188.77.110 (talk) 14:59, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Claims about tests of nerve agents on concentration camp inmates

I have removed claims that Ambros tested nerve agents on concentration camp inmates. Apparently these are taken from the toxipedia article (http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Otto+Ambros#OttoAmbros-Tucker%2C2006), which states

Throughout the war, Ambros had tested his nerve agents on concentration camp inmates and he had overseen IG Farben's rubber plant at Auschwitz where 30,000 inmates where overworked to death or "deemed unfit" and ordered to death (#Tucker, 2006).
Tucker, Johnathon B. War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda. Pantheon Books, 2006.

However, looking at the snippets of Tucker's book that are visible in Google Books, I can't find anything like that. I suspect the Toxipedia editor is confused.Vilhelm.s (talk) 13:33, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

Ok, I have now reach Tucker, so I can comment on what it says. The main nerve gas production plant at Dyhernfurth included a concentration camp for slave labor, and the prisoners were also used for human experiments:

about twenty prisoners were exposed to nerve agents for varying lengths of time in a sealed glass chameber and then examined; about a quarter suffered painful deaths during the trials. Prisoners were also misused as human "canaries" by being locked up for long periods without a gas kams in train cars of muntions depots loaded with Tabun-filled bombs or shells.

After the war the allies interrogated Germans. Another IG Farben board member, Fritz ter Meer, admitted that Tabun and Sarin had been tested on "volunteers" from the concentration camp. Ambros does not seem to have directly admitted that he knew about the tests, but there is second-hand testimony that he did know, because they had been discussed in his presence:

During an interrogation at Dustbin, Jürgen von Klenck revealed that Karl Brandt had once told him and Ambros that he had witnessed one of Professor Wirth's tests involving Sarin and that the results had been "very impressive". Although Brandt had spoken of "guinea pigs", Klenck said that he had inferred by the manner in which Brandt described the results that the experimental subjects had actually been humans and not laboratory animals.

At Nuremberg Ambros was convicted of his used of slave labor, but at a different rubber plant. He was never charged with any crimes related to the nerve gas plant.

Vilhelm.s (talk) 04:40, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

later life

Otto Ambros was released from prison in 1951 by U.S. high commissioner [of Allied Germany] John McCloy and later given a U.S. Department of Energy contract. Added to article with links to news source. Book by Annie Jacobsen contains greater details.

Where did he do his consulting after his release - the US, etc 2601:181:8301:4510:C034:FCE6:7AC2:F632 (talk) 13:47, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

"Buna rubber, [...] for use in rubber tyres"

The way I've heard it, is that this was not about just any old kind of "rubber tyres" – but about the wheels of the peculiar Henschel Schachtellaufwerk used in the Tiger and Panther Tanks, in which this kind of hard rubber was vitally important for a smooth running. Might be worthy to investigate and maybe note in the article. --BjKa (talk) 10:46, 10 April 2018 (UTC)