The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 215
graph of the Becker document’s equally nonsensical consideration to
transfer leaky vans to Berlin for repairs (see p. 45).
The rest of the verdict consists mainly of speculations about the total
number of victims of these alleged gas vans at each of their location of
deployment, based on a number of witness statements and documents.
Although certainly interesting from a historical point of view, these
consideration do not contribute anything new to our understanding of
the matter at hand.
3.7.4.6. LG Stuttgart, Verdict of 15 Sep. 1967
Albert Widmann was a Chemist at the German Institute for Criminological
Technology in Berlin (Kriminaltechnisches Institut, KTI). In
1939 he received orders from Arthur Nebe, then head of the Reich Police
Department for Criminal Investigations (Reichskriminalpolizeiamt),
to find a poisonous chemical which could be used to kill severely mentally
disabled individuals in the course of the euthanasia program. He
settled for bottled carbon monoxide. Later he is said to have gotten involved
in the development of “gas vans” as well. In 1967 he was tried
on both accounts by the Stuttgart District Court. The German newsmagazine
Der Spiegel reported about this trial (1967a):
“In the fall of 1941 the expert [Widmann], who meanwhile had
become the head of the chemical department of the KTI, was ordered
to a mission in the east in order to develop ‘other killing methods’ as
a relief for the SS execution commands. Widmann traveled with
eight centners [400 kg] of explosives, two metal hoses and two vehicles
into the area of Minsk to experiment in murder.
The first attempts were disappointing. 25 mentally ill people were
locked into a shelter, which had been prepared with explosives;
Widmann gave the sign for the explosion and also operated the ignition
device himself. Each time corpse fragments whirled through the
air and got stuck in the trees. This procedure was unsuited for mass
murder.” (Similar, but more detailed: verdict pp. 561f.)
We can take for granted that Widmann has developed an efficient
method for killing people at the beginning of the euthanasia action in
late 1939 – bottled carbon monoxide (verdict p. 559). It’s been tested
and foolproof. In late 1941 he was allegedly asked to help jump-start a
similar program in Minsk. Instead of giving those Germans in Minsk a
simple advice like: “If you don’t have bottled gas, take it from your
wood gas generators,” he instead traveled 2,000 miles to get himself in-