The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

166 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
age. The result was similar to that described by chauffeur
Grabowski *).” [88]
In this context a certain Kazimierz Grabowski testified during the
trial against Rudolf Höß, former commander of the Auschwitz camp,
that the engine of a gas van was fueled with methanol (Höß Trial, vol.
26, pp. 32f.). I am not sure whether this is the same witness, though.
It goes without saying that mixing any chemical additives to the
gasoline in order to accelerate the gassing procedure wouldn’t have
made any sense, as those additives would have burned in the engine before
exiting through the exhaust pipe. This section merely proves how
rumors grew and were spread among the witnesses and how they were
willing to back them up with purely invented stories about sweet tasting
exhaust gases and doctors giving stupid advice. (Any doctor would
have advised not to let any engine run in an enclose space, not just
when the gasoline came from certain sources.)
The information given in the final paragraph of Bednarz’s description
of the alleged gassing trucks deployed in Chemno is somewhat
more detailed than what he wrote in USSR-340 (ibid., p. 25f.):
“The witnesses determined the vehicle’s dimensions as follows:
2.5 to 3 meters wide, about 6 meters long, when it comes to the larger
vehicles, and 2.3 to 2.5 m wide and 4.5 to 5 m in length regarding
the smaller vehicle. The cargo box was built with narrow, tight,
closely connected boards so that the car could give the impression of
an indoor paneling. The interior was lined with sheet metal, and it
had sealed doors. All the cars were dark gray, almost black. The engine
was probably of the ‘Saurer’ brand (Lewandowski, Rossa).”
Here Bednarz has corrected the misspelled Saurer name, but still: either
the entire vehicle was a Saurer, or if not, then the engine wasn’t a
Saurer either. Plus, if it had been a Saurer truck with a Saurer engine, it
would have had a Diesel engine incapable of killing in the manner described
by the witnesses. In addition, the cargo box of the innocuous
Ostrowski moving truck was also made of tightly connected wooden
boards with a sheet metal lining on the inside (see Illustration 15f.).
Hence this alleged feature of the “gas vans” could originate from crossfertilization
among erring or lying witnesses.
88 In a footnote Bednarz states that the Central Jewish Historical Commission has a German
document speaking of “Spezialbenzin” – special gasoline.