The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

372 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
Translation
Dear Mrs. Weckert!
I send you a photograph of the vehicle which served the function of
a gas chamber used to murder inmates with exhaust gases in Hitler’s extermination
camp CHEMNO at the river NER in the district of KON-
IN.
I think that this is the photo you are interested in.
After the war a memorial was erected in CHEMNO on the grounds
of the former extermination camp.
You can find the photo of this memorial in the album “Locations of
Jewish Martyrdom and Fighting on Polish Soil 1939-1945,” pages 49-
50, which I enclose.
Roughly 330,000 Jews, several thousand gypsies and ca. 5,000 Soviet
prisoners of war as well as Czech children from Lidice and from
Zamosc in Poland were killed by means of exhaust gases in vehicles especially
constructed for this.
The photo of the vehicle, a so-called “soul vendor,” is also shown at
the Auschwitz Museum in Block 27 as part of the exhibition dedicated
to the extermination of the Jews in the former Hitler concentration camp
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU.
With my best wishes for your health