The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

262 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
4.2.7. Gassing Procedure
The standard version is a flexible, removable metal hose attached to
the exhaust piped during a gassing operation, which led the gases into
the cargo box. However, there is a plethora of other versions about the
way the gas was produced and piped into the cargo box:
– from a device in the driver’s cabin, upon pressing a button piped
from there into the cargo box (Sakowska 1993, pp. 162f., 166)
– a valve in the driver’s cabin, turned on during a transit of 200 m
(Kogon et al. 1993, p. 98)
– a lever in the cabin, operated by the driver (LG Köln, 20 June 1953,
p. 153; LG Dortmund, 16 Jan. 1969, p. 680; LG Kiel, 14 June 1974,
p. 662; LG München I, 19 Dec. 1980, p. 251)
– a lever outside the cabin (Manoschek 1998, p. 230)
– gassing device inside of truck, operated form the driver’s cabin during
transit (LG Stuttgart 15 Aug. 1950, p. 200)
– custom built device by Auschwitz motor pool (Jan Dziopek, Höß
Trial, vol. 8, p. 109)
– exhaust pipe forking mechanism (Falborski, Appendix 9; Kohl 2003,
pp. 69f.)
The statements claiming that the vans had some fancy piping and/or
wiring allowing the poison gas to be “turned on” by opening a valve or
pushing a button inside the driver’s cabin are a curiosity. This runs not
only contrary to most other witnesses, but it would also have been quite
a technical feat to revamp a normal truck in such a drastic way that the
flow direction of the exhaust gases (let alone gasses produced otherwise,
as some state) could have been handled from within the driver’s
cabin. It shows that the fanciful fantasies of these witnesses were devoid
of any basis in reality.
The problem is, however, that the witnesses claiming these fanciful
devices aren’t just some individuals. One of them, claiming a button in
the cabin (Sakowska 1993, pp. 162f., 166), actually stems from one of
the most important “sources” we have about Chemno: the so-called
“Szlamek” Report already mentioned before (p. 241), which is a testimony
allegedly given by a former inmate who is said to have been a
grave digger in Chemno and who allegedly managed to flee and subsequently
had his version recorded in the Warsaw ghetto in early 1942.
Orthodox historian Peter Klein posits – without proof – that the vehicle
described in this report was an undefined early version which op-