The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 123
propaganda about which had been spread by the Polish underground
movement since the fall of 1941. According to Heinisch, the victims in
Auschwitz were gassed while taken an actual shower – by suddenly
turning on a valve to insert the gas. Although stated with much determination,
this is nevertheless utter nonsense 69 and merely proves that
the defendant is simply parroting what was put in his mouth. On the upside,
though, is the fact that this statement confirms indirectly the
enormous efforts of the German authorities to disinfest the Auschwitz
prisoners in order to save their lives. The propagandists simply twisted
the tale to fit their purposes.
“Heinisch: Extermination of people by gas poisoning was to take
place in concentration camps.
President: In German-occupied territory?
Heinisch: There are no concentration camps in the occupied regions.
President: That means in Germany?
Heinisch: Yes.” (p. 92)
Today the exact opposite is claimed: extermination is said to have
taken place in camps outside of Germany proper in the camps Belzec,
Sobibór, Treblinka, Chemno, and Auschwitz (although the Polish territory
around Auschwitz and Chemno/Kulmhof had been temporarily
annexed by Germany during the war). Once again this shows that at this
early point of the legend, the story had not yet been carefully orchestrated.
“[The witnesses’] testimony revealed details of the terrible tragedy
enacted in the hospital, in which wounded Red Army men were
being treated, after the capture of Kharkov by the Germans.
‘The human mind simply cannot grasp what I saw and lived
through in the period of the German occupation,’ stated Witness
Djinchviladze. ‘In the 8th block of the hospital there were 400 seriously
wounded men who needed immediate surgical attention. They
were either in the operating theatre or being prepared for operating
when a dull explosion occurred. The nurses ran towards me shrieking.
It transpired that S.S. men had driven up to the hospital, nailed
up all the entrances and hurled two incendiary bombs into the premises.
The first floor was at once enveloped in flames. The fire
reached the beds of the wounded. With their clothes burning, they
69 About the alleged gassing procedure cf. Mattogno 2005a & b, 2010.