The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

220 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
however, this value would never have been reached. Interestingly,
Widmann also stated that “the gas analysis did not have a useful result,”
a claim the court did not believe (verdict p. 570). When keeping in mind
that an idling Diesel engine would never have resulted in any “useful
result,” this statement might actually be the only credible part of Dr.
Widmann’s confession.
Considering that Germany was (and still is) one of the world’s leading
nations regarding science and technology, it must be assumed that a
very high technological standard also prevailed in the RSHA’s Institute
for Criminological Technology, to which Widmann belonged. Yet when
reading Widmann’s testimony, one is struck by the massive disorganization,
ridiculous incompetence, and gross carelessness reflected by
these men. This is irreconcilable with what has to be expected by such a
German institute. In other words: Widmann’s testimony is totally unbelievable,
and he is utterly discredited as a witness.
Widmann was eventually sentenced to 6½ years imprisonment,
which is a joke, considering his claimed deep involvement in mass murder.
3.7.4.7. LG Stuttgart, Verdict of 11 June 1968
The defendant of this trial, Edgar Enge, served as a guard in the
Semlin Judenlager near Belgrade, whose inmates are said to have been
summarily killed with a Saurer “gas van.” The defendant was accused
of having, on a few occasions, accompanied the van on its way to the
mass graves and having secured the unloading of the vans by other inmates.
With regards to the features and operation of the gas van itself
the court verdict is rather terse. In contrast to the Köln court, which
claimed 25 occupants per gassing, this court maintains 50 victims per
load (p. 412).
There is little interesting in this verdict for our purposes. The defendant’s
defense strategy was once more not to deny the “established
facts” claimed by the prosecution, yet to claim that resistance was impossible.
The only witnesses testifying during that trial were other
German guards. They all had their own versions about what allegedly
transpired, pointing with fingers all over the place but never to themselves
(pp. 413f.), so that at the end the court surrendered to this irresolvable
mess of anecdotal discrepancies and judged “in dubio pro reo”
regarding one charge. Although sentenced for aiding and abetting in the
mass murder of the Serbian Jews, the court abstained from meting out a