Zyklon
B
The TV news warned about a new drug. This was a medicine, whose original
purpose was to make it easier for pets to feel at home in their new
families. In a very short while, however, the potion had become a
popular drug. People took it in order to feel emotions they thought
they had forgotten. In larger doses, in particular, the strong sense
of longing induced by the substance made one feel like young again:
heart full of suppressed emotions and aching ambitions. The drug abusers
could be recognized from the fact that they looked liked they had
become submerged into their own world, constantly sighing and longing
for something they didn't have. As a warning example the TV programme
presented images of typical addicts: middle-class men and women in
their late forties sniffing the substance and then, taken over by
sentimental feelings, weeping on the floor in a state of deep affliction.
Not
following the doctor's orders was harmful for pet owners too. A bluish
photograph presented a famished dog owner sitting on the pavement
with an unusually empty expression in his eyes. Next to him lay an
equally haggard dog. By their own means they couldn't get up. Heavily
drugged they had become wasted after frantically chasing each other
around the suburbs for the last couple of weeks.
The
news then turned to other topics, which were not that interesting.
I paid for my coffee and exited.
It
was great to be in Prague. There was something very familiar in the
old facades. Feeling hungry, I wasn't up to sightseeing, so I asked
my friend Pasi whether he'd like to eat. "I'm not hungry,"
he replied. Suspecting that Pasi probably only wanted to save money,
I suggested that it wasn't necessary to eat out in a restaurant. "It's
half past two, so the lunch hour is soon over. But there are three
chefs in my apartment, always available for cooking."
The
flat was in the centre of the city, a luxuriously furnished old apartment,
with a number of servants waiting to attend to my needs. I had got
the flat through my local friends. They said I could stay for as long
as I liked.
Sitting
in the dining room we asked for a light meal. Eagerly the chefs started
cooking. Full of enthousiasm, they prepared dishes in the kitchen,
knowing how to prepare a perfect meal. Soon they emerged, one by one,
presenting their offerings: fried asparagus, marinated eggs, pork
chops... The cooks were good-mannered and in a good mood. Without
a shirt on, they presented their cookings speaking French and Italian.
I replied "Grazie" and "Merci" as they filled
our plates with delicacies. The fried eggs looked reddish brown. The
asparagus was of a species not previously known to me, with interesting
clusters of knots in the end of the vegetable.
After
the meal the servants suggested that we should play a game. The cards
were dealt so that each of us got almost twenty; there were none left
in the pack. The cards contained pictures, which fitted together with
those in the other cards. Each one at our turn we should put a card
on the table so that the images would form a uniform construction.
The big picture emerging from the individual images had to have a
logic: it should be possible read the cards on the table as a chronological
story. The ultimate goal was to get one's cards on the table before
the others.
At
first Pasi wasn't too interested. But when he noticed that the theme
of the game was a mass murder taking place during the World War II,
he started studying his cards closely.
There
was one card on the table. The picture in that card depicted a clearing,
on the edges of which there were German troops; some soldiers had
bent down so as to drag corpses on a gray cloth. I found a card, which
seemed to fit to this scene. In it the soldiers lift the cloth with
a crane so that the corpses fall to the ground. I put the card down,
content that I was already leading the game. "That card doesn't
belong there," one of the servants announced. "Before your
card there's another one where the soldiers are only beginning to
lift the cloth." Pasi had the right card, so I pulled back mine.
As
if somehow related to our war-like card game, there was a sound of
sirens, warning about enemy bombers approaching the city. In fifteen
minutes the bombs would fall upon us. Yet we were so fascinated with
the game that we didn't feel like seeking shelter. We continued settling
the cards on top of each other, undisturbed by the sounds of explosions
outside, which at turn subsided and then became louder, depending
on where the bombs hit.
We
never got the game finished. The front door swung open and two officers
walked in. They arrested us and took us down to the basement. "Why
didn't you seek for shelter?" they asked. On the opposite wall
I could see a mechanical gas warning device with a blue circle active.
The blue circle closed and a red one opened. This was accompanied
by a warning signal indicating that within 30 seconds the room would
be filled with Zyklon B. While the officers put on their gas masks,
we ran and hid to a neighbouring room, closing the door behind us.
We
found ourselves in a sauna. Hoping that the gas couldn't enter there,
we were disappointed to see a transparent mist appearing from the
ventilation shaft. "Hold your breath!" Pasi shouted. I pulled
my lungs full of air, but too late. I could taste the bitter gas mixed
with the air. Pasi fell down motionless to my left side.
It
was pointless for me to hold my breath. I had already inhaled the
gas, and from the lack of air my lungs were about to burst. I continued
breathing, expecting to die.
Nothing
happened, however. The gas evaporated and I was still alive.
Exiting
the sauna, I found a piece of paper on the table.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
929142
Zyklon
B research
Name:
Social Security Number:
Address:
Phone:
1)
Have you ever been exposed to Zyklon B?
a)
Yes
b) No
If
you answered (a), continue filling this form.
2)
Did you survive?
a)
Yes
b) No
If
you answered (a), continue filling this form.
3)
What was the effect of the gas?
a)
Dizziness
b) Sickness
c) Vomiting
d) Difficulties at breathing
e) Fainting
f) No effects
g) If something else, what?
4)
Have you been exposed to some other gas?
a)
Yes. Which one?
b) No
5)
Would you be willing to participate in testing other poisonous gases?
a)
Yes
b) No
