Real History and Outraged Sensitivities

Posted Sunday, September 8, 2002

Alphabetical index (text) Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech

This brand name was put together by technicians who had no idea what the implications were. We are very sorry. -- Company spokesman

Thursday September 5, 2002

David Irving recalls:
IN FACT, Zyklon brand pest-control tablets were still being marketed in the UK after the war (the distributors' telegraphic address was "Zyklon, London"). The files are in the Public Record Office. More recently, outraged Jewish leaders managed to get a "Zyklon" helter-skelter at a fairground renamed in Brighton, England.

Siemens withdraws "Zyklon" trademark

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Germany's Siemens says it has abandoned plans to register the trademark "Zyklon" in the United States, because of the name's association with Nazi gas chambers.

The company, which had hoped to use the trademark on household products including gas ovens, issued an apology, saying it had not meant to cause offence with the name.

It said it had withdrawn two applications filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark office last year through its Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte (BSH) unit, a consumer products joint venture.

Zyklon B, originally developed as a pesticide, was employed as a poisonous gas by the Nazis to murder millions of people in various extermination camps.

"This brand name was put together by technicians who had no idea what the implications were," said a spokeswoman for BSH GmbH. "We are very sorry if the trademark application caused any offence."

Zyklon B According to a report by the BBC the filing has caused outrage among Jewish Groups, particularly as Siemens had used slave labour during the Nazi period.

"This is a major, major scandal," said Shimon Samuels head of the European arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation, the BBC reported.