Did I really? It's gone now. Degesch (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung, literally "German Company for Vermin Containment") was - until 1986 - part of the Degussa Group (the ss is a coincidence!) which had its headquarters in downtown Frankfurt and mostly does chemical treatment of all kinds of metals. But it's all torn down now, it was sold for a fortune and rebuilt with posh offices and apartments.
Last I heard, Degesch, now part of another group, still exists, even in the US of A.
https://www.degeschamerica.com/And Zyklon B is still being produced, albeit under a different brand name. It's a "fumigation" rodent killer [and always was - before it was misappropriated to kill humans, which came about more by coincidence though, the initial gassing murders on Russian POWs and physically and mentally handicapped people were committed via engine exhaust fumes, but Zyklon B was readily available (while oil and gas were a scarce commodity in the Third Reich and devoted to the war effort), concentration camps initially stored it in large quantities to combat rats and mice]. While highly lethal, its chief advantage is the quick and absolute chemical decay of its hydrocyanic acid basis in open air. It quickly exterminates vermin in buildings, containers, ships etc used for food transport and storage such as grain silos which can then be promptly refilled without any lingering contamination.
None of the current Degesch home pages mentions any of this which I find an extremely poor handling of that part of their history even if you subscribe to "
Zyklon B didn't murder people, people did!"-style revisionism. Of course, they are now in the hands of a new owner who bought the company 40 years after the end of WWII.
To be fair, the Degussa Group (= former owner) has repeatedly paid large compensations to Jewish survivors and the Jewish Claims Conference as well as Israel in its history. Some years ago, Degussa put up a large donation for the refurbishment of Frankfurt's Jewish Museum (very close to the former Degussa headquarters, very likely built on one of their areas). There was an intensive dispute in the Frankfurt Jewish Community whether "blood money" should/could be accepted. Degussa stated that they were unable to change their horrible history, but would like to contribute, yet would perfectly understand if survivors found their offer unacceptable and/or too painful. In the end, the Jewish Community sensibly said that today's Degussa was made up of people that had nothing to do with the Holocaust and that voluntarily living in Germany as a Jew today meant being confronted with the history of the Shoah again and again as it permeated the German society of the 30ies and 40ies. I believe that was the right decision.
History class over!
