The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

192 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
Gestapo. Yet when Me. allegedly informed his father about what was
going on in Chemno, not even he “could give him any advice as to how
to avoid this activity” (“Me.,” pp. 256f.). What a defense strategy! If not
even staunch anti-Nazis had a solution, how can you sentence a son for
not knowing what to do! I wouldn’t believe that story for a second, but
it worked, and that’s what counts in a court room: “Me.” got off the
hook.
If the extermination claims about Chemno are true, the Nazi’s skills
to make everyone, even their opponents, follow their orders blindly was
quite remarkable indeed.
3.7.4.1.1. Technical Details
The verdict of the first trial contains the entire text of the Just document
(pp. 273-275; the letter’s first paragraph is quoted on p. 285). This
set the rigid framework within which the “facts” could be established by
the court.
“The gas vans were large trucks painted grey of a foreign make
[…]” (pp. 230, 277)
The reference to a “foreign make” is consistent with other sources
referring to foreign makes (Diamond, Renault, see chapter 4.2.2.). The
most likely candidates for such vans, the German makes Saurer and
Opel (Blitz) (see Becker’s statement, p. 189), were therefore allegedly
not represented in the Kulmhof/Chemno camp, where only up to three
such vans are said to have been in operation. 107
The vans sported a “[…] closed cargo box, which was separated
from the driver’s cab and was roughly 2 m wide, 2 m high and 4 m
long.” (Ibid.)
According to witness statements and the Just document, “nine to
ten” persons per square meter were crammed into the cargo box. If we
assume a packing density of 10 persons per m 2 and when assuming an
average body weight of 60 kg (with a density of roughly 1 kg/liter),
then these 80 persons weighing 4.8 metric tons filled up 4.8 m 3 of the
total of 16 m 3 of available space. Under these circumstances each person
had (11.2 ÷ 80) 0.14 m 3 (= 140 liters) of air volume at his or her
disposal. Under these circumstances the victims would soon have been
107 At times one of the three claimed Chemno gas vans is said to have been a Saurer, although
Mattogno has pointed out that the witness statements about the kind and number
of gas vans allegedly deployed in Chemno are not consistent (Mattogno 2011a).