The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 149
van, who was permitted to recognize its murderous nature – all the more
so since the exhaust system was still in the “homicidal” position when
handed in – and who must have been expected to convey this information
to his compatriots. Apart from Falborski himself, seven more
individuals are said to have worked in the same workshop where the repair
work was done, whose names as given by Falborski indicate that
they, too, have been Poles. Although the witness claims that the German
police did not allow the workers to investigate the design of the
vehicle, this is a ridiculous claim, as the mere fact that the exhaust pipe
led straight into the cargo box was sufficient proof that the vehicle was
meant to be used for murderous ends, a fact which could not have evaded
Falborski’s and his colleagues’ attention.
In summary, it is clear that this witness statement was meant to corroborate
the intended claim by the Polish Investigative Commission that
the moving truck found by them in the courtyard of the former “Ostrowski”
company in Koo, Poland, had been a homicidal “gas van.” It
is fortunate that at the end of the day this Commission and even the
Polish prosecutor were honest enough to admit that this truck never
served any homicidal purposes. However, by so doing they proved that
witness testimonies given in front of judges or prosecutors in Stalinist
postwar Poland did not always tell what they knew but rather what they
were told to know.
Falborski also featured in Claude Lanzmann’s movie Shoah (1985).
While right after the war the only knowledge he claimed to have about
gas vans came from what he had allegedly observed while repairing
one, plus that he had seen these vans on occasion on the roads, in
Lanzmann’s movie he suddenly had detailed knowledge about their operation,
even about the entire program of exterminating the regional
Jews: 78
“‘Were there a lot of Jews in Koo?’
‘A great many. More Jews than Poles.’
‘And what happened with the Koo Jews? Was he an eyewitness?’
‘Yes. It was frightful. Frightful to see. Even the Germans hid,
they couldn’t see that. When the Jews were herded to the station,
they were beaten, some were even killed. A cart followed the convoy
to pick up the corpses.’
78 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPQ9jYe_7HY; _lfFAH3BA04; R6nvodrL7Qo.