The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

56 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
cles (Spezialwagen–Saurer) in Serbia, although the telegram’s content
gives no indication as to what exactly was special about it.
In the subsequent English translation I have removed the upper case
style and fixed some typos to make it easier to read (see Appendix 3 for
the German text):
“To the R.S.H.A. Office Roem 2 D 3 KL. A–to att. of Major Pradl –
Berlin .–––
Re.: Special wagon–Saurer.––
Dossier: none.–––
The motorists SS– Scharf. G o e t z – a. M eyer have accomplished
the special order, hence the[y] named can be [are] ordered
back with the above mentioned vehicle. Due to cracked axle of the
rear half of the axle a transfer per axle [cannot take place].––
I have therefore order that the vehicle is transferred back to Berlin
loaded on the [by] railway.
Expected arrival between the 11. a 12 6. 42 The motorists Goetz
a. Meyer accompany the vehicle.– –
The Comm. of SIPO a. the SD [38] – Belgrade– Roem 1 – BNR.
3985/42 42
sgd. Dr. Schaefer– SS– Oberstubaf–”
The telegram also contains a handwritten note in the upper left corner
reading:
“Repair immediately after return. Report completion.”
Version A of this telegram’s text, which was typed on the lower half
of a separate sheet of paper – with the text of the telegram of 15 June
1942 in the upper half – sports a typo not contained in version B. It reveals
the originator of this retyped version: the second occurrence of the
word “Fahrzeuge” (vehicle) is mistyped as “Fahryeug.” This is a common
mistake of a German typing on an English typewriter or vice versa,
because on German typewriters the position of the Z and Y are swapped
in comparison with their position on an English typewriter. A second
typo also included in version A but not in version B is located two
words earlier, which sports a question mark instead of a comma. Since
the telegram was typed in upper case, this indicates that the typist accidentally
forgot to release the upper case key (or unlock the caps lock).
And in fact, old German mechanical typewriters had the question mark
as the upper case alternative of the comma. Although this was not the
38 SD stands for Sicherheitsdienst – security service.