The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

130 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
does not agree with the documented height of mere 1.70 m. No rubberlining
of the door (what for? Or did he mean a rubber sealing?), automatic
door (why and how?) are ever mentioned by other witnesses. As
mentioned before (p. 118), the two parallel pipes connected with a
transverse pipe and sporting numerous holes would have made no sense
at all, other than being expensive and complex to install, complicating
the cleaning of the cargo box, and making the entire system susceptible
to damage. A thread could not be cut into a regular exhaust pipe, as they
are usually too thin. Plus the extreme temperature differences of an exhaust
pipe, coming with considerable thermal expansions and contractions,
would have made it difficult to screw anything on it. No engineer
would have resorted to such a solution.
Repeated references to the Becker letter and to the telegrams contained
in 501-PS as discussed here in chapter 2.2.2. and 2.2.3. were
meant to bolster the Soviet case (vol. 2, p. 126; 3: pp. 559-561, 4: pp.
213, 251, 253, 323f.; 7: pp. 172; 19: 511; 20: p. 177). One of the telegrams
was again mention during the Einsatzgruppen Case of the NMTs
(vol. 4, p. 514).
3.5.2. Walther Rauff’s Affidavits
At war’s end Walther Rauff was serving at the Italian front, where
he was taken prisoner of war by U.S. troops in spring 1945. While imprisoned
he was asked twice to confirm the authenticity of the Becker
document, which was to be used as incriminating evidence against the
defendants during the then pending Nuremberg Military Tribunal. On
18 October 1945 he wrote a handwritten note across the left margin of
this document “confirming” its authenticity. On the next day he signed
a brief English affidavit, in which he repeated this confirmation (IMT,
vol. 30, pp. 256-258). Having a prisoner confirm the authenticity of a
document before a trial is not necessarily common practice, but when
considering the fact that the origin of the Becker document was noted as
“unknown,” one can understand the U.S. authorities’ eagerness to have
Rauff confirm its authenticity.
As Weckert has observed correctly (Weckert 2003, pp. 228f.),
Rauff’s affidavit contains a number of errors of fact, for instance that he
wrongly located the Saurer company in Berlin, when in fact it was located
in Vienna:
“The vans were built by the Saurer Works, Germany, located, I
believe, in Berlin.”