The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

102 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
Illustration 3: A German wartime producer
gas truck form Saurer (Type 5 BHw, produced
until 1935; Rudolf 2003, p. 461)
As early as 1984, Friedrich Paul Berg not only pointed out that the
use of Diesel engine exhaust for mass murder would have been absurd,
but also that the theory of the use of any exhaust gases is absurd when
considering that the Germans, suffering from lack of petroleum during
WWII, had retrofitted almost their entire truck fleet during the war with
so-called producer gas generators. They were technically rather primitive,
as all that was needed for their construction was a steel container
and a few pipes. By smoldering any available combustible organic material
(wood, charcoal, coke) under restricted oxygen supply, these generators
produced a gas mixture with carbon monoxide contents as high
as 30% and more. 62 The vehicles equipped with these generators used
this gas to fuel their engines. But since the energy content of producer
gas is rather low compared to gasoline or Diesel fuel, engines thusly fed
had a considerably reduced power.
But make no mistake: producer gas is lethal only before entering the
engine! Since the engine burns the carbon monoxide, what comes out
the exhaust pipe is actually quite harmless, in particular in case of Diesel
engines. It would therefore not make any sense to pipe the exhaust
gases of such a producer gas van into a hypothetical gassing box. For
this one would have used the generator gas itself, which of course
would mean that the same gas could not simultaneously be used to drive
62 How easy it indeed is can be see from sequel 4 of the documentary “One Third of the
Holocaust,” www.holocaustdenialvideos.com/videos/04_engine_exhaust.wmv starting at
2 min. 20 sec.