The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 243
window of a room was allegedly walled-up and two metal pipes were
added to a wall in order to allow exhaust gases to be piped into that
room. In this case, however, two cars are said to have been used to produce
the gas. The process is said to have lasted some 20 to 30 minutes
“per batch,” with a total of 600 murdered persons (p. 292).
Just like the Widmann case with the alleged attempt to dynamite the
victims prior to resorting to gas, this case too claims such an insane approach
(p. 293):
“[…] 200 patients of the insane asylum in Mogilev were killed.
[…] The victims […] were shot in tank ditches, and hand grenades
were thrown at them.”
The verdict finally has an interesting statement regarding the gassing
with stationary gasoline engine as mentioned by me on p. 27 which I
have not found anywhere else (p. 292):
“The defendant’s car was connected to the gas chamber several
times. The vehicles had to be changed constantly in order to prevent
the engines from overheating.”
3.8.5. LG Neubrandenburg, Verdict of 22 Feb. 1961
Kurt G. Goercke was the defendant during this trial, facing charges
of mass murder in numerous cases allegedly committed during his deployment
in Russia with Sonderkommando 4b. The “gas van” ostensibly
used by this unit is described by the verdict as follows (p. 393):
“This truck had a solid, sealed, lockable cargo box, into which
the exhaust gases of the engine were piped. The vehicle could accommodate
30 persons.”
The procedure is said to have taken five to ten minutes (ibid.).
3.8.6. LG Greifswald, Verdict of 3 July 1952
This trial was held against Bruno W. Sattler, who was head of the
Gestapo in Serbia from February 1942 to the end of the German occupation.
The whole case was tried at a time when Germany was still under
the absolute jurisdiction of the occupational powers. Therefore the
laws applied in that case followed the directives of the Allied Control
Council. The verdict is less polemical than the others reviewed here, but
at once considerably less sophisticated from a legal point of view (it is
not even eight pages long).