The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 37
handed down from one level to the next lower one down to those responsible
for carrying out the necessary experiments and to those
charged with deploying the vehicles.
Although I have of course no experiences in this regard – and for
good reasons – it seems to me that the construction of vehicles meant to
kill persons locked up inside of them during transit had to include under
any circumstances three technical adaptations:
a) Since panic among a large number of persons can drive people to extremes,
such a cargo box would have to be especially strong. Hence,
a robust cargo box structure had to be bolted to the chassis, fitted inside
with a cage resembling a zoo’s big cat cage, which could withstand
both shocks during the ride as well as escape attempts of those
lock up inside. This is especially true for the door, which had to be
particularly reinforced in order to keep the panicking victims securely
locked up inside, even if they all stormed the door. In this context
I may remind the reader that a panicking crowd collectively pressing
against doors, fences or even walls can make them collapse. A
standard rear door of a normal van would not have done the trick.
Needless to say that no such construction can be found in the documents
we are about to examine.
b) If exhaust gases were used to suffocate the victims, an engine type
had to be used whose exhaust gases produced sufficient carbon
monoxide to kill within a few minutes. This is to say: the truck had
to be equipped with a gasoline engine. Alternatively and more conducively,
a vehicle equipped with a wood gas generator could have
been used with a means to alternatively switch the wood gas to flow
either to the engine or into the cargo box, although this would have
rendered the van immobile during gassing operations.
c) If exhaust gases were used, and if occasionally the truck’s cargo box
was also to serve as a normal transport device, then a mechanism is
expected to have been added permitting to alternatively pipe the exhaust
gases either to the outside as usual or through a hole into the
cargo box. A flexible metal hose or a telescopic pipe extension
which can be reversibly attached to the exhaust pipe comes to mind.
d) The entry hole inside the cargo box emitting the noxious gases needed
to be designed in such a way that the passengers, any accidentally
falling objects or any fluid would be unable to destroy or block/plug
it.