The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 183
cial device (lever and hoses), so that the persons in the interior were
put to sleep and died of a carbon oxide poisoning.” (p. 153)
A special device, indeed, sporting a lever and several hoses at once.
The notion that a lever was used to “turn on” the gassing was probably
inspired by the Becker document, which mentions such levers without
specifying what they were, even though from the context it is clear that
they were allegedly used to fine-tune the procedure, not to turn it on and
off (see page 53).
Nothing in the verdict indicates who came up with such a description,
but it probably stems from the defendant, who most likely just
made up what he thought would have been the likely setup. Again the
court:
“After three days the Sonderkommando consisting of the SS-
Scharführer Goetz and Meyer arrived in Belgrade with the special
vehicle Saurer from Berlin. […] In the course of this time the Jewish
men, women, and children present in the Semlin camp were handed
over to them for removal by means of the ‘gas vans.’ It was feigned
to the Jews that they would be relocated to a different, better camp.
To make this deception more credible, it was ordered that the Jews
had to take along all of their belongings. Hence the victims let themselves
being duped and credulously climbed in groups of 25 persons
into the death van in hope for better living conditions. The vehicle
was closed and started moving. During transit the driver directed
the engine’s exhaust gases through a hose into the vehicle’s interior
by means of a lever, so that the occupants fell asleep in the way described
above […].” (ibid.)
So now we know for sure: the lever to switch the gassing on and off
was in the driver’s cabin and could be operated by the driver during
transit! Quite fanciful indeed.
According to another source, though, that lever is said to have been
at the outside of the truck (Manoschek 1998, p. 230, referring to
Landesgericht Wien, 27e, Vr 2260/67):
“One of the two drivers, Wilhelm Götz or Erwin Meyer, got out
and turned the lever at the outside of the truck, so that then the exhaust
gases would be led into the vehicle’s interior.”
Considering that the Saurer vehicles could allegedly accommodate
up to 100 victims at a time, the court’s claimed load is a little off, but
that may be explained by the fact that they all took their belongings