The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

54 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
people rather than lull them to sleep. It was therefore technically impossible
to adjust such an engine in such a way that it would have produced
exhaust gasses capable of putting anyone to sleep peacefully.
It is not even clear what “levers” (plural) the author is talking about.
The truck had only one accelerator pedal, and that is called “Gaspedal”
or simply “Pedal” in German, not “Hebel.” One court verdict mentions
the adjustment of a stationary vehicle’s idling speed (Standgas), probably
by means of a hand throttle or choke, but as evidence for this it
quotes the Becker document (Rüter et al. 1968ff., vol. 33, p. 284), so
we are going in circles here.
Even though pulling the choke would have increased the engine’s
rpm while idling and hence the amount of gas produced, it would have
had no significant effect on the composition of the exhaust gases. The
same is true if the driver of a stationary truck gave “full throttle,” as the
Becker document mentions (on this see Berg, in Rudolf 2003, p. 447).
The only effect would have been that the gassing box had been filled
faster with the hot but non-toxic Diesel exhaust gases. But the amount
of gas produced by the position of the accelerator or the choke has neither
an influence on the time it took for suffocation to occur nor on the
circumstances under which death set in, that is, whether the victims fell
asleep or remained awake, whether they ended up having distorted faces
or not, or whether they lost control of their bowel movements or not.
It is, by the way, astounding that the National Socialist hierarchy
even bothered with such humanitarian consideration in this context and
allegedly tried to achieve that the victims fell asleep peacefully and forever,
or so the Becker document suggests. But since adjusting the levers
properly wouldn’t have had any effect anyhow, this story is simply untrue.
The real reason why the author included this tall tale was probably
to give the impression that he is talking about real events. But since the
claims are nonsense, this exposes the author as a liar.
The reference to these “levers” probably inspired later “witnesses”
to confabulate about some undefined levers used to initiate the piping of
exhaust gases into the cargo box, as we will see later on.
– 35th sentence: as mentioned in chapter 1.3.1., Diesel exhaust gases
are not only hot but also full of smoke and irritants so that no matter
which way one tries – with or without success – to suffocate anyone
with them, it is going to be torture. Hence, quite contrary to what the
author of the Becker document claims, it must be argued that, the faster
death occurs, the less time the victims have to suffer and panic; “full