The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 309
This prevents this section from falling out. It must not fall out, because
the cable is attached to it and because it has to pull the other sections
along when the grate is being retracted. If this catching mechanism is
omitted, one is forced to disassemble the grate and to reinsert the sections
individually into the rail. Otherwise the grate will be retracted by
the cable winch.
In this case the cable winch obtains 2 cables. The cable for extraction,
for instance, is threaded clockwise and the one for the later retraction
counterclockwise around the drum. The threading of the extraction
cable has already been dealt with. The retraction cable runs from
the drum through the open door along the vehicle’s floor to a roller attached
to the rear wall of the driver’s cabin right above the floor. From
the roller the cable is brought to the drag section and attached in a
sheared manner. Detaching this cable, which also is necessary when
closing the door, is achieved by means of a snap hook. Each of the cables
is either a tow or a drag cable.
3.) To the
Group Leader II D
SS-Obersturmbannführer R a u f f –
in this house
presented with the request for a decision
[caption of illustration:] coupling of grate [section]
REMARKS: This text does not give the impression that it was authored
by a technician; the terminology is naïve and the explanations rather
incoherent. A German correspondent confirmed that this memo
contains nonsensical items and uses uncommon terms. The description
of the device listed under c), which is said to have been realized, is unclear;
any reference to a guide roller at the vehicle’s rear end is missing,
whose installation would have been indispensible, since the winch was
beneath the vehicle.
I have prepared a drawing about this device (see Illustration 21, p.
311), which is based on the information contained in the memo of 27
April 1942 as well as the confirmation letter of 30 April 1942. It shows
the version which was eventually accepted according to these documents:
A retractable floor grate. That the cable could be detached from
the winch in order to avoid leakages of the cargo box is an indication