The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

184 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
along, 96 a claim which we will encounter again in a similar manner in
the next verdict handed down some eight years later.
Next the court refers to an actually existing document, the telegram
of 9 June 1942 reporting the conclusion of the “action” (p. 154; see
chapter 2.2.3.2.), which bears the defendant’s name. If genuine, it sure
does not have any incriminating content either.
The defendant was finally sentenced to 6½ years imprisonment for
two murders (the two hostages mentioned at the beginning) and aiding
and abetting in the murder of some 7,000 people. So his strategy panned
out at least partially: He blamed it all on the rotten corpse of the Führer.
3.7.3. From 1960 to 1964 (2 trials)
3.7.3.1. LG Karlsruhe, Verdict of 20 Dec. 1961 & 13 Dec. 1963
During this trial eight defendants, only three of which were sentenced,
97 were accused for various (mass) homicides during their service
for various German authorities in the eastern theater of war. Two
of the defendants were successful with their appeals. The subsequent
passages are from the first verdict, unless otherwise stated.
Most of the homicides dealt with during this trial concern shootings,
which do not interest us in this context. 98 Regarding mass murder with
gas vans, which the defendant Dr. Hans Schumacher was accused of
having supervised in early 1942 and which he confessed to have done,
the court writes: 99
“[The gas van] was a cuboid truck resembling a moving truck
which could be sealed airtight and which could accommodate some
30 persons. By way of a dedicated device which was to be operated
by the driver, engine exhaust gases could be led inside the van instead
of to the outside. The occupants then died within a few
minutes.
96 Since no other vehicle is mentioned, they probably took it along in the gas van. But
compare chapter 3.7.4.8. about the same event, where a separate vehicle is claimed.
97 Hans Schumacher & Reinhold Brünnert each to 4 years; the retrial against Erich Ehrlinger
was first postponed but later shelved due to the defendant’s permanent unfitness
for trial (appeal verdict, p. 629); see next footnote.
98 Interestingly, the main defendant Erich Ehrlinger, head of Einsatzkommando 1b in summer
1941, “persistently” denied having ordered or participated in wanton mass murder,
though the court did not believe him, pp. 85f., 106. Initially sentenced to twelve years, a
retrial never took place due to him allegedly being permanently unfit for trial. Ehrlinger
died in 2004 at the age of 95. So much for his unfitness; cf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Ehrlinger.
99 The verdict of the appeal merely copied this passage from the first verdict, p. 615.