The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

232 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
white sheet metal on the inside, and the floor was covered with a
wooden grate. A hose permitted the exhaust fumes to be directed into
the interior from below.”
Although the verdict claims that this is the summary of a number of
“basically” (whatever that means) congruent witness statements (p.
419), the alleged Russian nick name for this vehicle – “soul killer” – as
well as the false windows were first claimed by the Soviet show trial in
Krasnodar (The People’s Verdict 1944, pp. 16f.), but are otherwise conspicuously
absent in witness statements and court verdicts. 120 This gives
us a clue where the entire theme of this trial comes from: it is basically
a repetition of the Krasnodar show trial, with new defendants and a different
children hospital (cf. The People’s Verdict 1944, pp. 27-31, 35),
but otherwise all the old claims and methods, including the uncritical
acceptance of testimonies made by Soviet “witnesses” – or as the verdict
puts it naïvely: “no manipulation of the [Soviet] witnesses has been
noticeable” – plus a forensic expert report about 214 exhumed children
allegedly killed with carbon monoxide produced by the Soviets back in
1943 (pp. 412, 419; cf. The People’s Verdict 1944, pp. 31f.; see chapter
3.2. in this present study).
That neither the defendant nor the witnesses knew why these 214
had to be killed is of no relevance. The court knew it: they had to make
room for injured German soldiers (p. 421).
The defendant, by the way, denied having had any knowledge, let
alone having been involved, in the murder of these children. He also
claimed to have seen a gas van only twice and from a distance (p. 422).
How he could have known “from a distance” that this was “the” gas van
is a mystery, though. Of course the judges did not believe him.
3.7.5.4. LG München I, Verdict of 29 Mar. 1974
At the end of this trial the three defendants – Johannes P. Schlu.[?],
Heinrich A. Win.[?], Rudi F. Esc.[?] – were sentenced to 4½, 3, and 5
years imprisonment for their various contributions to the claimed mass
murder of Jews allegedly committed by Einsatzgruppe D in southern
Ukraine. Only the – confessing – defendants Schlu. and Esc. were accused
of having been involved in the operation of a “gas van” by
Einsatzgruppe 11 in the Ukrainian town Cherkessk.
120 The Polish peasant Andrzej Miszczak who lived close to the Chemno camp and had
heard “rumors” about gas vans (Bednarz 1946c, p. 47) called these vehicles “hell autos”
(ibid., pp. 23, 47f., 52).