The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 117
gas produced (as well as its content of carbon monoxide) was higher for
a Diesel engine during engine load (that is, when the van was moving)
than while idling, so that the victims would have died faster during
transit than when the vehicle was standing. Hence the witness’ statement
is illogical in this regard.
“The next witness to be examined was Kotov, […]
‘[…] Several minutes later I felt bad and began to lose consciousness.
At one time I had taken a course of anti-gas bombing
drill and I soon realized what was happening – we were being poisoned
with some kind of gas. I tore off my shirt, moistened it with my
urine and pressed it to my nose and mouth. I began to breathe more
easily, but I lost consciousness all the same. When I came to I found
myself in a pit among scores of dead bodies. I managed to climb out
of the pit somehow and crept home with great difficulty.’” (pp. 28f.,
similar on p. 11)
It is too bad that carbon monoxide is insoluble in water, hence his
urinated shirt wouldn’t have helped him a bit. This statement indicates,
though, that gas warfare hysteria prevailing throughout Europe in that
era due to traumatic experiences during the trench warfare of the First
World War have left their psychological traces, upon which the propagandists
played their tune (see Crowell 2000).
The witness Inozemtseva stated:
“Going on duty on 23rd September, I saw a large dark grey vehicle
in the courtyard, which looked something like a furniture van.”
(p. 29)
This is in accordance with the fact that the only truck ever suspected
to have been a gas van, which was investigated for this very reason by a
Polish expert commission after the war, turned out to be mere moving
trucks, indeed (see p. 33f.). Hence the witness unwittingly and unwillingly
hit the jackpot with this statement. Of course, with this statement
he contradicts the claims quoted before that the trucks had windows
painted on their side, making them look like motor buses.
It is worth noting that “Jews” were never mentioned as the victims
of the claimed murders, be they in gas vans or otherwise. Rather it is
claimed that the extermination measures were aimed mainly at eliminating
children, the sick, and the disabled from hospitals, clearing them
out for wounded German soldiers (pp. 8, 10-13, 27-30, 35). The commission’s
victim count of “only” 7,000 seems also ridiculously low, if
considering that the Just document alone claims 97,000 victims for just