Bruno Tesch

Bruno Tesch
Tesch in British custody, 1945
Born	Bruno Emil Tesch (1890-08-14)14 August 1890 Berlin, German Empire
Died	16 May 1946(1946-05-16) (aged 55) Hamelin Prison, Hamelin, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Occupation(s)	Chemist and entrepreneur
Known for	Co-inventor of Zyklon B
Political party	Nazi Party
Criminal status	Executed
Motive	Financial gain
Conviction(s)	War crimes
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	~1.1 million (as an accomplice)
Span of crimes	1 January 1941 – 31 March 1945
Country	Germany and Poland
Location(s)	Auschwitz concentration camp Sachsenhausen concentration camp Neuengamme concentration camp Majdanek concentration camp Ravensbrück concentration camp
Weapons	Zyklon B

Bruno Emil Tesch (14 August 1890 – 16 May 1946) was a German chemist and entrepreneur. Together with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, he invented the insecticide Zyklon B. He was the owner of Tesch & Stabenow (called Testa), a pest control company he co-founded in 1924 with Paul Stabenow in Hamburg, Germany. During the Holocaust, Tesch sold vast quantities of Zyklon B, utilizing his pesticide as a way to commit genocide. Over 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis using Zyklon B.^[1]

Following the end of World War II, he was arrested by the British as a war criminal, tried, and executed. Tesch and his deputy executive, Karl Weinbacher, were the only businessmen to be executed for their role in Nazi war crimes in Western Europe.