The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 135
3.5.3. Otto Ohlendorf’s Affidavit and Testimonies
Ohlendorf had been the head of the security service (Sicherheitsdienst)
within the SS-RSHA from 1939 to 1945. I subsequently
quote from p. 3 of his affidavit dated 5 November 1945 (NMT, vol. 31,
p. 41):
gas
“In the spring of 1942, we received corpse vehicles from the
Chief of the Security Police and the SD in Berlin. These vehicles
were made available by office II of the RSHA. The man who was responsible
for the cars of my Einsatzgruppe was Becker. We had received
orders to use the cars for the killing of women and children.
Whenever a unit had collected a sufficient number of victims, a car
gas
was sent for their liquidation. We also had these corpse vehicles stationed
in the neighborhood of the transit [74] camps into which the
victims were brought. The victims were told that they would be resettled
and had to climb into the vehicle for that purpose. After that the
by starting the vehicle the gas streamed in
doors were closed and the gas turned on.
The victims died within 10
to 15 minutes. The cars were then driven to the burial place, where
the corpses were taken out and buried. […]
I was shown the letter which Becker wrote to Rauff, the head of
the Technical Department of office II, in regard to the use of these
gas
corpse vehicles. I know both these men personally and am of the
opinion that this letter is an authentic document.”
Ohlendorf’s original testimony is extremely interesting, because in
its original form he consistently used the term “Totenwagen” = corpse
vehicle (or wagon for the dead). The “Toten” was later struck out and
replaced by “Gas.” The English translation of his testimony has no trace
of this original wording.
Similarly revealing is the way Ohlendorf originally described the
way the gas was administered (“das Gas [wurde] angedreht” = the gas
[was] turned on). This was of course not in accordance with the official
story of exhaust gases being piped into the cargo box, and so this passage,
too, was changed later on.
74 The official English translation in NMT 1950, vol. 4, pp. 206f., has the word “transient.”
This is no minor mistranslation, but reeks of fraud. Although the English terms could be
confused (transient transit), the original German terms cannot (Durchgangslager
vorübergehende Lager), and it is unlikely that the translator chose the false, but uncommon
term (transient) by accident instead of the common, correct one, because the unwelcome
term used by Ohlendorf here supports the revisionist theory that the alleged “extermination
camps” were indeed mere transit camps.