The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 185
[…] When the inmates climbed into the gas van, they did not
know what was awaiting them; Dr. Schumacher had told them that
they would be resettled; hence they remained fully dressed and could
also take their small possessions along. After they had climbed into
the gas van, the doors were closed tightly, and still within the prison
courtyard the exhaust gases of the running engine were led into the
vehicle’s interior. Soon thereafter the vehicle started to rock slightly;
dull cries and knocking was audible. The inmates struggled for
their lives. When all had turned silent after a few minutes and the
vehicle had stopped rocking, this was the sign for the driver that the
inmates were now dead. Now the gas van drove to its destination at
the city limits, […]. When opening the truck at the burial site, the
corpses of men, women and children half stood, half lay in a disorderly
manner and had distorted and disfigured faces, were soiled
with vomit and excrements, visibly the signs of a painful death.” (p.
100)
According to Dr. Schumacher, those gassings were only exceptions
to the shooting rule, because “the atrocious corollaries of the gassings
(unloading the corpses)” as well as the “emotional burden of the SS
men who had to bury the victims” was unendurable (p. 103; appeal verdict:
p. 618). This is interesting because the gas vans are said to have
been invented in order to relieve the SS men charged with mass shootings
from this burden. Just read what these men allegedly did instead of
using the gas van for its intended purpose:
“The inmates meant to be executed […] had been loaded […] onto
a truck, whose cargo space was surrounded by a tarpaulin, or on
a gas van temporarily used as a transport van. Then they were […]
driven to the execution site […]. The inmates were led individually
or in small groups […] to the ditch, into which they had to lie down
face down, in order to be shot by a member of the execution command
with a shot in the neck. In thus happened frequently, that the
subsequent inmates had to lie down on their executed, gory fellow
sufferers, before they were all covered with dirt.” (p. 104; appeal
verdict: p. 618)
Killing each human being individually at arm’s length sure is a
heavier emotional burden on everyone than killing a large batch anonymously
in a gas van. Also, I cannot see why burying a gassed victim
should be ghastlier than burying a shot victim. The former is less gory,
for sure.