The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

174 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
1984. His office delivered the bulk of the evidence on which this book,
co-edited by him, is based, which consists mainly of postwar testimonies
of defendants and witnesses. When it comes to the gas vans, it is
striking that Kogon et al. also refer to the “evidence” gathered during
the Kharkov and the Krasnodar trials without even a hint of criticism
(ibid., pp. 62, 67; fn. 50, p. 261). They even quote from the propaganda
work The Black Book by Soviet atrocity propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg
(ibid., p. 64; fn 45, p. 261), plus Herr Fenichel as published in a wartime
Soviet propaganda brochure (see chapter 3.5.1., p. 129) is quoted
as well (ibid., p.; fn. 58, p. 261). This clearly indicates that the West
German criminal investigations into these alleged crimes were nothing
else but yet another extension of the Soviet wartime show trials.
Before turning to the individual cases, I may briefly analyze the pun-
ishments meted out against the defendants
in the trials I am about to rereview,
see table to the right. 94 All in
all 69 defendants were tried in these
West German cases, although not all
of them for their alleged involvement
in gas van murders. If a defendant
was punished, it was either for manslaughter
or for aiding and abetting in
murder. Not a single defendant was
punished for murder, as they were all
assumed to have merely assisted the
main villains (Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich
etc.). As can be seen from the
tabular listing, 21 of the defendants
were either acquitted or not punished,
be it because the court abstained from
doing so or because the case was
shelved. 25 defendants received prison
terms of less than five years. Five
Punishing Gas Van Killers
WEST GERMAN VERDICTS #
life terms: 2
15 years and more: 1
10 to less than 15 years: 6
5 to less than 10 years: 14
less than 5 years: 25
acquittals or no punishment: 21
number of defendants: 69
Punishing Revisionists
DEFENDANT YEARS
Horst Mahler 11 *‡
Ernst Zündel 7 †
Günter Deckert 5 ‡
Germar Rudolf 3 2 /3 ‡
Sylvia Stolz 3½ *
Udo Walendy 2½ ‡
Otto E. Remer 1 5 /6
5
Fredrick Töben
/6
Siegfried Verbeke ¾
* For a combination of historical and political statements.
† Including two years in Canada, which the German court refused to acknowledge.
‡ Accumulated term of two or more cases, served together.
94 life + 15; life + 8, 15, 3 × 13, 12 (appeal shelved due to unfitness), 2 × 10, 3 × 8, 4 × 7,
2 × 6½, 5½, 4 × 5, 8 × 4½, 6 × 4 (one not enforced), 3½, 2 × 3, 2 × 2 ½, 2 × 3, 4 × 1 + 6
weeks, 21 × acquitals or no punishment (including Becker for unfitness; Heinz G. Rie.
for allegedly gassing partisans).