The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

154 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
Hence this detailed description of something that no reasonable engineer
or mechanic with some common sense would have ever seriously
considered installing proves merely that the witness’s fantasy was going
rampant.
In passing I may note that in a 1961 testimony a certain Erich G.
stated that he, too, drove such an alleged gas van in the Minsk area, but
according to him the vans could hold 50 to 60 people, and he merely
talked about him “connecting the hose to the exhaust pipe” without referring
to any fanciful yet useless contraption. (Benz/Distel 2009, pp.
575f.)
3.6.2.4. The Interrogation of Szymon Srebrnik
This witness, who at the time of his interrogation was only 15 years
old, is said to have been one of only three survivors of the Chemno
death camp ever to testify about what had transpired there. 83 On 29 June
1945 he testified before the Examining Judge Wadysaw Bednarz as
follows (Srebrnik 1945):
“There were three vans: [a] larger one and two smaller ones.
The larger van could hold up to 170 people, while the smaller ones,
100-120.”
With this size the witness sets the record for the vans’ capacity and
goes well beyond what would have been physically possible even with
the large Saurer trucks. The witness continues:
“The van doors were locked with a bolt and a padlock. Then the
engine was started. The exhaust fumes entered the interior of the van
and suffocated those inside. The exhaust pipe went from the engine
along the chassis and into the van, through a hole in the car’s floor,
which was covered with a perforated sheet of metal.
The hole was located more or less in the middle of the chassis.
The van’s floor was also covered with a wooden grate, just like the
one in the bathhouse. This was to prevent the prisoners from clogging
the exhaust pipe.
The vehicles were specially adapted vans. On one of them, under
a new coat of paint, one could see a trade name. I cannot remember
the name, but it started with the word ‘Otto.’
I do not know the make of the engine. The chauffeurs were Burstinger
[Burmeister?], Laabs and Gielov. Shouting and banging on
83 State of Israel 1993, vol. III, p. 1194, right after the witness urawski had been dismissed;
online: …/Session-065-06.html, end of text; cf. Kogon et al. 1983, p. 145.