The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

138 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
tempted to find out all I could. What I did discover was that in the
Warthegau executions of Jews were carried out in gas vans.”
Unfortunately no one at the trial was interested to find out how and
by which means von Schirach had found out what, as he was interrupted
at that point, and the issue was not brought up anymore. The Chemno
camp is located in that Warthegau area, where mass murders with
gas vans are claimed to have happened. I will return to this topic when
dealing with the German postwar trials.
Alfred Jodl, at war’s end chief of Staff of the supreme command of
the German armed forces, stated the following (vol. 15, p. 333):
“I never heard a single word about tortures, deported persons,
or prisoners of war, crematoriums or gas vans, torments reminiscent
of the Inquisition, and medical experiments.”
Although it might be that he had not heard of some of these things,
he surely went too far when claiming that he had never heard anything
about prisoners of war.
Hans Fritzsche, editor-in-chief of the German news agency “Deutsches
Nachrichten-Büro” and Josef Goebbels’ right-hand man, stated in
his defense (vol. 17, p. 181):
“I, as a journalist who worked during that period, am firmly convinced
that the German people were unaware of the mass murders of
the Jews and assertions to that effect were considered rumors; and
reports which reached the German people from outside were officially
denied again and again. As these documents are not in my
possession, I cannot quote from memory individual cases of denial;
but one case I do remember with particular clearness. That was the
moment when the Russians, after they recaptured Kharkov, started
legal proceedings during which killing by gas was mentioned for the
first time.
I ran to Dr. Goebbels with these reports and asked him about the
facts. He stated he would have the matter investigated and would
discuss it with Himmler and with Hitler. The next day he sent me [a]
notice of denial. This denial was not made public; and the reason
stated was that in German legal proceedings it is necessary to state
in a much plainer manner matters that need clarification. However,
Dr. Goebbels explicitly informed me that the gas vans mentioned in
the Russian legal proceeding were pure invention and that there was
no actual proof to support it.”