The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

136 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
Other than that we do not learn anything new about the deployment
of the gas vans from Ohlendorf’s declaration. It confirms the previously
quoted witness testimony, according to which the van could operate ten
to fifteen minutes. I maintain my claim that we deal with a technical
impossibility: If the cargo box was hermetically sealed, then either the
box would have burst or else the engine would have stalled.
Ohlendorf’s testimony during the IMT regarding the gas vans basically
repeated what he had already stated in his affidavit, but when
asked “How was the gas turned on?,” he revealed his lack of knowledge
of any details about the issue: “I am not familiar with the technical details”
(vol. 4, p. 322). This confirms that the original German version of
Ohlendorf’s affidavit probably conveyed what he had thought and that
the correction was done by (or on command of) others. Also, his claim
about how many persons were executed at one time (15 to 25, ibid., p.
323) is at odds with the load usually claimed, which was three times as
large. During his interrogation Ohlendorf was asked to authenticate the
Becker document, which he did only in a roundabout way, and to retell
the reasons why the gas vans were deployed, which is a leading question
which in a proper court of law would have been forbidden, but in
this case it indicates that Ohlendorf’s testimony had been carefully choreographed
(ibid., p. 323f.).
Ohlendorf testified again during the Einsatzgruppen Case of the Nuremberg
Military Tribunal. There he specified that there were two different
sizes of gas vans, one for up to 15 people, and the other for up to
30. Amazingly, when asked whether the cargo box had any windows,
he responded “That is possible” (NMT, vol. 4, p. 301), which once more
proves that Ohlendorf was oblivious of the issue he was ask to testify
about.
3.5.4. Ernst Biberstein’s Affidavit
Between September 1942 and June 1943 Biberstein was commander
of Einsatzkommando 6. In his affidavit he writes regarding the deployment
of gas vans (translation of document No-4314, NMT, vol. 4, p.
210):
“I personally superintended an execution in Rostov which was
performed by means of a gas truck. The persons destined for death
[…] were loaded into the gas truck which held between 50 and 60
people. […] I myself saw the unloading of the dead bodies, their faces
were in no way distorted, death came to these people without any