The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 217
This absurd story reminds me of the memoirs by former Auschwitz
commander Höß, who, after months of torture and imprisonment, had
claimed that attempts were made to make corpses disappear by blowing
them up, which, needless to say, didn’t work out too well (Broszat
1958, p. 159). In this context I may also refer back to a survivor of the
Chemno camp who came up with a similar story of mass murder by
blowing up a building (see chapter 3.6.3.1.).
The explosive story reported by Der Spiegel astonishingly stems
from the defendant himself, who concocted it during an interrogation
seven years prior to the trial (Friedlander/Milton 1993, pp. 477-480;
subsequent page no. in this chapter from there, unless indicated otherwise).
Reading this interrogation makes one think that Widmann was
pulling the interrogator’s legs. He claimed, for instance, that prior to
their departure one of his colleagues had asked “the air force” to find
out, how many explosives they would need to obtain the intended result.
Why the air force? What do they know about blowing up people in
wooden sheds? In fact, any air force officer confronted with such an inquiry
would most likely have given the closest insane asylum a call,
asking for a straightjacket. Next Widmann claims that they had trouble
getting the explosives and that at the end they bought it from a company
in Berlin (pp. 477f.). Well, next time I am in Berlin I’ll stroll into an
explosive factory as well and buy 400 kg TNT. Why not? Bomb shopping
is my favorite pastime!
Widmann also tells us the gripping story how his superior had come
up with the idea of killing by means of exhaust gases (p. 478):
“With Heess there has also been talk about using gas to kill the
mentally ill […]. I assume that Heess had talked about this already
earlier with Nebe. That must have been around the time when Nebe
– as Heess had told me back then – had dozed off in his car in the
garage with the engine running and almost had died, if one is inclined
to believe his tales.”
Yes, if… 116
Widmann subsequently tells the tale about preparing the wooden
sheds for the fireworks, but claims that he had seen no victims (or parts
thereof) either before, during, or after the explosion (pp. 479f.). That
was probably meant to be his emergency exit out of being held responsible.
116 The LG Hannover called this story a “rumor,” verdict of 7 June 1966, p. 616.