The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

188 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
With the exception of the foldout ladder, which is mentioned nowhere
else as far as I know, this description of the “gas van” could
probably be seen as a kind of “standard” in the sense that it shows the
features most frequently referred to. Merely the claim that the gassing
procedure was initiated only after arrival at the burial place is somewhat
strange. That is precious time and in particular fuel wasted.
The court verdict discussed in the previous chapter quoted a defendant
claiming that the gas vans weren’t used often because their method
was so cruel and emotionally burdensome. Here we read the exact opposite.
Yet here, too, a reason is given why mass shootings continued in
spite of the existence of these vans, yet it is different than what we’ve
heard before:
“[…] frequent defects of the gas vans may have been the reason
that they were not used continuously, so that Jews kept being shot.”
(p. 195)
Later on the verdict also claims bad soil conditions as a reason why
the truck couldn’t approach the pit anymore, so the victims had to be
shot (p. 268; 270), or that the gassing didn’t work at all, as the victims
were merely unconscious (p. 270). Hence this verdict surmises as well
that the gas vans were at times not used to gas people but rather to
merely transport them to an execution site in order to be shot there (p.
197).
3.7.3.3. Interrogations of August Becker
In 1959, the West German authorities finally succeeded in tracking
down the Chemist August Becker, the author of the infamous letter introduced
during the IMT as part of 501-PS. Becker had apparently
dropped out of sight since the war, as he had never been asked to corroborate
his letter at Nuremberg or any other trials. No less than at least
five German prosecution offices subsequently interrogated Becker:
Gießen (28 Jan 1959; 26 March 1960), Düsseldorf (11 Jan. 1960), Hannover
(28 Jan. 1960), Wiesbaden (4/5 April 1960, while hospitalized)
and Stuttgart (20 June 1960). 100 Although the Internet encyclopedia
Wikipedia claims that Becker was eventually sentenced to 10 years imprisonment,
101 there is no evidence to support this, as his name does not
100 The dates are taken from Beer (1987), except for the one of 4/5 April 1960 and 28 Jan.
1959, which stem from http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/stal/grafeneck/index.htm; Beer
doesn’t list them, because these interrogations did not deal with gas vans.
101 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Becker.