on moved to a new laboratory at Wuppertal-Elberfeld *big_german.jpg* in the Ruhr valley.Back to Top *nerve_history.html* Manufacture of Tabun by Nazi GermanyIn 1939, a pilot plant for Tabun *../agents/tabun.html* production was set up at Mnster-Lager, on Lneberg heath *big_german.jpg* near the German Army proving grounds at Raubkammer. In January 1940, the Germans began construction of the full scale plant, code named Hochwerk, at Dyernfurth-am-Oder *big_german.jpg* (now Brzeg Dolny in Poland), on the Oder River 40 km from Breslau (now Wroclaw) in Silesia. The plant covered an area 1.5 by 0.5 miles and was completely self-contained, synthesizing all intermediates as well as the final product, Tabun. The facility had an underground plant for filling munitions, which were then stored at Krappitz (now Krapowice) in Upper Silesia. An IG Farbenindustrie subsidiary, Anorgana GmbH, operated the Tabun plant, as well as all other CW agent production plants in Germany.The plant took an extraordinarily long period, from January 1940 until June 1942, to become operational. This was due primarily to the difficult nature of the production process. Certain intermediates were so corrosive that the Germans were forced to run all reactions in quartz- or silver-lined vessels. The extreme toxicity of Tabun *../agents/tabun.html* required that the final production units be enclosed in double glass-lined walls, with a stream of pressurized air circulating between the walls. All units were periodically decontaminated with steam and ammonia.The Dyernfurth workforce numbered 3,000, all German nationals. Workers were equipped with respirators and clothing made from a rubber/cloth/rubber sandwich; the clothing was discarded after the tenth wearing. Despite these precautions, over 300 accidents occurred before production began, and at least 10 workers were killed during the 2.5 years of operation. Harris and Paxman give some examples of incidents in reference 1 *n...
