What specific documents in the Nuremberg IG Farben trial record list Zyklon B sales or delivery invoices to Auschwitz?
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Executive summary
The public record of the IG Farben trial contains trial rolls, Law Reports and captured‑records microfilm that researchers point to when looking for documentary evidence of Zyklon B shipments to Auschwitz, but the available secondary guides and collections do not present a single, neatly‑titled “Zyklon B invoice” file singled out in the trial judgment itself [1] [2]. Archival compilations and published trial reports do, however, include contemporaneous business papers and trial exhibits—catalogued in the IG Farben case records (trial rolls and NARA microfilm)—that scholars have used to reconstruct orders, deliveries and increases in Zyklon B received at Auschwitz [1] [3] [4].
1. What the IG Farben trial record comprises and where Zyklon B material lives inside it
The IG Farben prosecution produced a massive documentary corpus—described in modern compilations as tens of thousands of pages of trial records, including “Records of the IG Farben Case Trial Rolls” and associated volumes of documents and films—where evidence about the firm’s Auschwitz plant, Degesch (the Zyklon B trademark holder) and related transactions is held [1] [2]. The U.S. trial files were later microfilmed among captured German records; the National Archives guide to those microfilms (including series M892) identifies records related to the Auschwitz plant and Farben’s construction and director correspondence, which is the same documentary stratum researchers consult when tracing Zyklon B procurement and shipments [3] [1].
2. Specific published sources and trial reports that contain invoices or sales entries
Published Law Reports and the “Records of the IG Farben Case” reprints used by historians contain excerpts and exhibits cited at trial; these compilations are the first port of call for anyone seeking shipment or sales documents for Zyklon B connected to Auschwitz [5] [1]. The Harvard Nuremberg Project’s IG Farben case introduction references the case’s documentary record on Degesch, Zyklon B and the Auschwitz/Monowitz plant, indicating that the tribunal’s documentary exhibits included business and procurement papers tied to those operations [2]. Secondary summaries point readers to trial rolls and the multi‑volume document sets—rather than to a single one‑page “invoice” in the public judgment—meaning invoices and delivery records appear embedded among many trial exhibits and captured corporate records [1] [2].
3. What the trial record actually proved and what it left ambiguous
Although the trial record contains business papers and evidence of Degesch’s manufacture of Zyklon B and IG Farben’s ownership stakes in Degesch, the IG Farben tribunal concluded that the prosecution had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that certain top executives knowingly supplied Zyklon B for extermination—an evidentiary gap reflected in acquittals on related counts for some directors [4] [6]. For that reason, even when invoices, order books or delivery notes appear among the records, the tribunal’s published judgment treats those papers as part of a larger factual matrix without a single decisive “invoice list” that the judges cite as conclusive proof in the way a modern audit might [2] [4].
4. Parallel prosecutions and documents specifically about Zyklon B deliveries
Scholars and memorial projects remind readers that separate trials—most notably the Zyklon‑B Case against Bruno Tesch and others—produced focused records and Law Report excerpts explicitly about suppliers who shipped Zyklon B to the SS, and those proceedings include more direct discussion of sales and supplier knowledge than the broader IG Farben corporate trial does [5]. Researchers tracing invoices therefore consult both the IG Farben trial rolls and the more narrowly framed postwar supplier trials and contemporary captured commercial records to assemble a chain of documentation linking deliveries to Auschwitz [5] [1].
5. How to locate the documents researchers cite
Researchers are directed to the IG Farben trial multi‑volume document sets (often digitized or sold as large archival downloads), the U.S. National Archives captured records microfilm collections (e.g., M892 listings that identify Auschwitz/Farben materials), and published Law Reports that excerpt the Zyklon‑B supplier cases; together these are the specific documentary repositories where invoices, order forms and delivery notes appear among many exhibits [1] [3] [5]. The published IG Farben case introductions and archival guides (Harvard Nuremberg Project, NARA guides, and compiled trial document volumes) function as the roadmaps to those embedded invoices rather than as a citation to a single consolidated invoice list [2] [1].
Exactly which individual invoice folio numbers or exhibit labels list Zyklon‑B deliveries to Auschwitz is traceable only by consulting the trial rolls and microfilm reels themselves (for which the archival guides cited above are the proper finding aids); the secondary sources in this collection point researchers to those rolls and the related Zyklon‑B supplier proceedings rather than reproducing a single definitive “invoice list” in full [1] [3] [5].