The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

368 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
witz Museum [see the illustration on p. 375]. Hence Beer must have
erred.
The response by the head of the Yad Vashem archives was even
more surprising. This stronghold of Holocaust hagiography sent us the
same photo of the derelict Magirus moving truck, yet stated at once that
beyond this they had no photos. What beats everything, though, was the
request by the archive’s director to inform her in case we would find
another photo of a gas van and to send her a copy of it! That’s a way to
run an archive: let everybody send in any document they like and claim
about its provenance whatever suits their purpose. Who cares about authenticity?
[Comments by the present author: Since Illustration 15 in Appendix
1, taken in 2010 from the Internet, sports a caption saying that it’s from
the Yad Vashem archives, who in return must have received it from the
Polish archive owning the originals, it is safe to say that Yad Vashem’s
plea was finally heard by someone. In fact, their online database reveals
that they received two of their images from orthodox Holocaust historian
Michael Tregenza and German Nazi hunter Adalbert Rückerl. 131 Yad
Vashem’s “gas van” images showing the Ostrowski moving truck bear
misleading or outright false captions, like (archival signature in parentheses):
“Kolo, Poland, A Magirus van found after the war, suspected as
a gas van used for murder in Chelmno camp.” (1264/2 & 1007/31;
similar 1427/84)
“Chelmno, Poland, A gas van.” (5318/232)
It is also hard to believe that back in the late 1980s und early 1990s,
when those inquiries were made, neither Yad Vashem nor the Auschwitz
Museum knew the results of this Polish investigative commission.
If they did know it, then they lied to us. If they did not know it, then
they were crassly incompetent. SA]
Regarding the alleged “gas van memorial in Konin” I first contacted
the Polish embassy in Paris, then the city authorities of Konin, and finally
the town authorities of Chemno. Only the city authorities of Konin
answered [see next page]. I have quoted their brief but unequivocal
answer at the very beginning of this study, and I may repeat it here:
“There is no gas van serving as a memorial in our town.”
131 Archival signatures 5318/232 and 1007/31, respectively; for their current holdings of
“gas van” pictures use their image search engine at
http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/en-us/search.html