The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

204 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
The gas vans allegedly deployed in Chemno are said to have been
of the “first group” (an expression used in the Becker document, see
chapter 2.2.2.3.; cf. Beer 1987, p. 414), which entails that not all of
them, if any, were Diesel-equipped Saurer trucks.
3.7.4.3. LG Wuppertal, Verdicts of 30 Dec. 1965 & 13 Dec.
1967
This trial concerned four defendants accused of having participated
in mass killing operations of Einsatzkommando 6 within Einsatzgruppe
C, which operated in the north and central Ukraine. Some of these killing
operations are said to have been conducted with a “gas van.” Some
of the defendants claimed that they executed only criminals and partisans
as well as their supporters, but the court did not believe them. One
defendant was acquitted, while the other three were sentenced to 8, 5,
and 3 years, respectively.
The verdict does not contain much information about the “gas van.”
It merely states that it was “a 5 ton truck with a metal cargo box resembling
a moving truck. The cargo box could hold at least 60 densely
packed people and could to be entered from the rear through a large
door. The engine’s exhaust gases could be introduced with a hose” (p.
513). Note that numerous sources speak of a wooden cargo box merely
lined with sheet metal.
An attempt to kill the occupants of an insane asylum with an unnamed
poison failed according to the verdict, because “either the doctors
refused to administer the poison or because the poison turned out to
have no effect.” I wonder which poison they picked so expertly that it
had no effect. Anyway, the occupants were subsequently killed with a
shot in the neck instead, an operation about which the court affirms:
“Many of the victims went laughing and wildly gesticulating into
their death.” (p. 509)
That may be a child’s imagination of the occupants of an insane asylum,
but highly educated judges should know better.
To close this case, there is also a little gem regarding the German
concentration camps in the verdict. Since one of the defendants had repeatedly
been severely drunk during his military service, he eventually
got sentenced to 8 months. After he had served his time the following
ensued in 1944:
“Subsequently he underwent a rehab in the Buchenwald concentration
camp.” (p. 506)