The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 159
“The van in which the victims were gassed could take 80-90 people
at a time. During my stay in Chemno, two cars were used simultaneously.
In addition, there was another van, the largest of the
three, but it was out of order and remained in Chemno in the yard (I
saw it had one wheel taken off).
[…] Jews who carried the corpses from the van had to remove
the wooden floor grate from the vehicle and clean the car thoroughly.”
Just like the first Chemno witness Srebrnik, this one also is at the
upper range of the vans’ alleged capacity, which would have been physically
impossible with the type of vans claimed by orthodox historiography.
This internal consistency of falsehood indicates that both witnesses
did not testify independently.
It is also interesting to note that on one of the photos of the famous
Koo moving truck, the left front wheel can be seen as missing (see Illustration
12, p. 275). Although it is not mentioned in his statement, it is
likely that Podchlebnik was shown the photos of that truck as well and
that his story about the decommissioned third “large” truck missing a
wheel is based on exactly this photo.
According to Podchlebnik, the regime at Chemno was cruel, except
that, when it comes to his escape, he forgets about this general theme
and shows the SS man as a comrade willing to share even his last cigarette
with an inmate (keep in mind: cigarettes in wartime Germany were
rare and expensive, since tobacco does not grow in central Europe!):
“When the truck was in the woods, I asked the escorting SS man
for a cigarette. When he gave me what I wanted, I stepped back and
my companions surrounded him asking for cigarettes for themselves.
With a sudden movement I cut the tarpaulin on the driver’s side
with a knife I had on me and jumped out of the car.”
He had a knife? Sure, every inmate had a knife. After all, that’s what
inmates have…
3.6.2.6. The Interrogation of Mieczysaw urawski
This witness was interrogated by investigative judge Bednarz on 31
July 1945 (Bednarz 1946c, pp. 60-66). His statement does not contain
quite as much information as those of the other witnesses. He describes
the van as black, sealed, lined with sheet metal inside and a bathroomstyle
wooden grate on the floor. The exhaust pipe entered into the cargo
box through a hole in the floor covered with a sieve. He was oblivious