The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 35
own comments, they use to adorn a reprint of Halbersztadt’s abovementioned
text. 28 One image of the moving truck taken by the Polish
commission has clearly been mislabeled as “Gas Van, found in the former
Ostrowski Factory in Koo.” While captions printed on the larger
“created” images state that they are merely “based” on a photo or have
even been “created.” Although a note at the bottom of the page clearly
states “The pictures of the Diamond, Opel, Saurer, and gas trailer are
not original. They just show their possible appearance,” other websites
simply copy these images without explaining that they are artwork rather
than photos. 29 I have reproduced some of these “artworks” in Appendix
1.
Another picture of an alleged gas van appeared in several issues of
the German news magazine Der Spiegel (1963, 1966, 1967a) as an illustration
of articles dealing with trials of defendants accused of having
participated in the claimed mass murders with these vehicles. This picture
is reproduced in Appendix 1 as well. It shows the rear of a vehicle
bearing a large cross – no doubt a red cross of an ambulance – which
looks huge when compared to the person standing next to it. There is
again absolutely nothing about this photograph lacking any details that
would justify the captions given: “Mobile gas chamber” (1963), “SS
gas van: ‘The people didn’t scream” (1966), “NS gas van, ‘nine to ten
per m 2 ’” (1967a). Later on, when discussing contemporary documents,
we will recognize the significance of the words “nine to ten per m 2 .”
Der Spiegel does not give any information about the provenance of the
photo. In lack of authentic photos it was probably taken from some innocuous
source, which was left unnamed so the curious reader could
not recognize this deception. The first section of the article belonging to
the last illustration reads as follows:
“The two box vans cruised around the courtyard of the Berlin
Reichskriminalpolizeiamtes (RKPA) with smoking exhaust pipes. [30]
But the air remained pure: The car exhaust gases were piped into
the van’s interior via hoses.”
The reader is flummoxed: How can exhaust pipes at once smoke and
leave the air pure? But better still: considering the relatively small size
of city blocks in Berlin: Who would be so crazy and let a van cruise
round and round in such a restricted area just to produce some exhaust
28 www.deathcamps.org/gas_chambers/gas_chambers_vans.html.
29 For instance http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/NAZI%20GAS%20VANS.htm.
30 Reich Police Department for Criminal Investigations.