The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 99
Germans have now introduced mobile delousing squads with special
vans, and they are already working hard in the regions bordering on
Russia, where the Germans are organizing winter quarters for soldiers
from the Eastern front.”
Such mobile delousing units employed either some kind of poisonous
substance like Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide) or simply hot air or hot
steam in order to kill pests. In contemporary British expert literature on
disinfestation we read about the hot air method (Busvine 1951, p. 85f):
“Insects are not very resistant to high temperature; they die if
their bodies are raised to about 60°C (140°F) for five or ten minutes
[…]. The destruction of insects by heat has been quite widely practised,
both for disinfesting articles (e.g., clothing. bedding, wooden
articles and food) and for disinfecting premises. The use of heat does
not call for any special experience. Such risks as do exist (scorching,
fire) are obvious to the simplest workman. […] Hot air is the most
satisfactory heat-disinfesting agent for destroying insect pests. […]
The most efficient hot air disinfestor which is reasonably mobile and
thus adapted to Service requirements, is the [1940] Millbank apparatus
which employs the forced draught principle.”
To be effective, a disinfestation van’s cargo box had to be sealable
and in case of hot air or steam disinfestation also insulated. Where poisonous
substances were used, these vehicles were probably also
equipped with warning signs and symbols about the potential danger
emanating from them for the operating personnel and for bystanders.
Regarding the use of disinfestation methods at the eastern front by
German units Berg pointed out (1987, p. 77):
“The high temperature approach, whether it involved steam or
hot air, was used more often in Eastern regions occupied by the
Germans. This was because of the shortage of the trained specialists
which were needed whenever one worked with Zyklon-B.”
German wartime expert literature describes in detail the technology
used in one type of delousing/disinfestation van, which was meant to
replace older systems, which had either been unreliable or damaging to
the disinfested goods (Dötzer 1944, p. 29):
“The combined hot air–steam–hot air method […], system Hygiene
Institute of the Waffen-SS-Goedecker, works according to the
following new principle for mobile units:
The goods to be disinfested are suspended loosely in a closed
chamber mounted on a vehicle. It is first pretreated for some 20