The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

194 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
ture would have created difficulties to keep this thread operable due to
fast corrosion, unless one had used special stainless steel.
It is furthermore striking that the two ends of the hose were not attached
with the same technique: The one end was “inserted” into the
exhaust pipe and fixed with a cap nut, whereas the other end had an ominous
“conical tip,” with which it was attached to the pipe in the cargo
box. Why complicate matters in such a way? Perhaps the connection to
the box was permanent, whereas the one to the exhaust pipe was not, allowing
for the hose to be detached, rolled up and stowed somehow underneath
the cargo box? Apparently the judges didn’t care too much to
find out how the hose was attached to the pipe opening.
The verdict continues:
“The two wings of the door at the back of the cargo box opened
to the outside and were equipped with a rubber sealing ensuring an
airtight closure.” (pp. 230f., 277)
No word indicates that the cargo box had openings enabling the escape
of excess exhaust gases (for instance of the kind mentioned in the
first paragraph of the Just document: two 1 cm × 10 cm slits). In fact,
going to the trouble of using rubber seals to make the box airtight logically
excludes the option of any openings. This confirms once more that
the cargo box, in which the victims were said to have been locked, is
said to have been sealed hermetically, which means that the exhaust
gases must have exerted an ever increasing pressure on the interior of
the cargo box. The description given for the way the hose was connected
to the pipe opening or to the cargo box indicates that this connection
must have been hermetical as well. Under these circumstances, the exhaust
gases would have been piped into an enclosed space with a free
volume of some 11 m 3 , so that it would have taken only a few minutes
until the pressure would have risen to such a degree that the cargo box
would have given way. Yet we are told that the operation took up to 15
minutes (see chapter 4.2.5. for the various alleged operation times).
3.7.4.1.2. Operational Mode
“Next the naked people had to enter the gas van. In each case it
had been backed up by the driver to the openings of the ramp. After
the wings of the door had been opened, the ramp was entirely closed
up, since the ramp’s floor was at the same height as the floor of the
gas van. While the Jewish people walked across the ramp, they were
supervised by another police guard in addition to the accompanying