The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

176 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
“The so-called black vehicle was a large truck, which looked like
a moving truck and whose interior was lined with sheet metal. An
invisible device to be operated from the driver’s cabin was installed
in its interior, through which a lethal gas could be released into the
enclosed vehicle, a device which was started soon after the truck had
driven off so that the Jews inside the vehicle could be killed during
transit.” (p. 231)
“In this capacity [the defendant] then participated in the gassing
action of 26 Nov. 1941. This was implemented in such a way that the
Jewish inmates assigned for this were loaded into a special vehicle,
a so-called ‘black vehicle,’ on the square in front of the synagogue
in Bornhagen in the presence of the raiding squad: the vehicle resembled
a moving truck, and in its interior, which was sealed airtight,
pipes had been laid so that the occupants could be killed during
transit.” (p. 239)
It is worth noting that the gas vans employed by the Soviet Secret
Services before the war seem to have been based on black prison
transport vehicles (“Black Maria,” see chapter 3.2.1.), yet that only a
minority of witnesses of the alleged German “gas vans” stated that they
were black (see chapter 4.2.), whereas most witness claim colors similar
to those usually applied to German military vehicles (grey, sometimes
with a brownish or greenish hue). The “moving truck” theme, which we
will encounter in numerous German court verdicts, probably is an outcropping
either of the early Soviet show trials claims (see The Peoples’
Verdict, p. 29) or of the Koo Magirus moving van falsely identified by
Falborski et al. as “the gas van” (see chapters 3.6.2.3ff.). The claim of a
separate gassing device in the van’s interior which could be turned on
from the driver’s cabin during transit is in conflict with most other witness
statements as well (see chapter 4.2.6.), which insist on engine exhaust
gases being used, a process which had to be initiated while the
truck was standing still. The issue of an allegedly airtight gassing box
need not be addressed here again.
Furthermore, the claim that the Bornhagen camp had “gas vans” at
its disposal at the end of November 1941 is not credible. The very first
gas vans claimed to have been deployed by the Germans are said to
have been delivered only toward the end of November/early December
1941, if we believe the orthodox version (Beer 1987, p. 412, who does
not mention this verdict). It does not appear likely that the unimportant