The corporation Tesch & Stabenow (in short Testa) was a market leader in pest control chemicals between 1924 and 1945 in Germany east of the Elbe.
Testa distributed Zyklon B, a pesticide. Zyklon B is lethal to animals as well as to humans. Its effect is based upon cyanide. Therefore Zyklon was only allowed to be sold mixed with an odorant to warn people of its poisonous nature. The company sold Zyklon B to the German army and the SS in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Testa sold it without the additive. Two directors of Testa were convicted and executed, as they were found guilty of assisting in the mass murder of Jews during the Second World War. The company continued after the war and merged with Heerdt-Lingler GmbH (HeLi) in 1979.
Tesch & Stabenow was founded in 1924 in Hamburg.
In 1925 the firm became the only distributor of Zyklon B on behalf of Degesch east of the Elbe. In 1927 Stabenow left the firm; Dr. Bruno Tesch became 45% owner, Degesch had 55% of the shares; in June 1942 Tesch became the sole owner.
Testa distributed a growing amount of the gas to the German army. In 1941 Tesch instructed the SS in Sachsenhausen in the use of the pest control. Starting in 1941 Testa sold Zyklon B to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Stutthof, Neuengamme, Groß-Rosen and Dachau. The highest turnover of cyanide was in 1943.
On 3 September 1945 the British arrested Bruno Tesch, director Karl Weinbacher and employee Joachim Drosihn. They were brought before and charged by a military tribunal [1]. They were accused of distributing to concentration camps with the intent to kill humans. An employee even stated that Bruno Tesch himself suggested the idea to the SS.
Tesch and Weinbacher were convicted in the Curiohaus process, and executed on May 16, 1946. Drosihn was acquitted.