The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 59
1) When can the deployment of another S-wagon be expected?
2) Are spare exhaust hoses available, on order or when deliverable?
3) submit draft for answer”
It is from this document that the claim arose that the Germans used
trucks built by the U.S. company Diamond as gas vans. Although Diamond
was a big player in the U.S. truck market in the 1930s and during
the war, no U.S. truck company ever exported trucks on a considerable
scale to European markets. There may have been a few selected Diamond
trucks in Germany, and if so, they were probably vehicles with
extraordinary designs rather than trivial trucks, but the probability that
any of them ended up being used as gas vans was minute. In addition,
since Germany could not get any spare parts for these trucks after the
entry of the U.S. into the war at the end of 1941, these vehicles would
probably not have been used for anything requiring reliability. It is
therefore much more likely that the name Diamond was entered in this
“telegram” by a writer who thought that using one of the best-known
truck models – best known to him – was a wise thing to do. Since
Saurer was a well-known name for Diesel and gas generator trucks in
Germany, it cannot surprise to see this name mentioned in the telegram
either, all the more so as the name “Saurer” had already been mentioned
during the war in Soviet show trials as the make of gas vans used in the
USSR. (I will return to that in chapter 3.5.1., p. 129.)
Hence, apart from the typo replacing a Z for a Y in the summary
version of the first telegram, here we have another indication that the
mastermind behind the creation of these documents was probably Anglo-Saxon
(i.e., U.S.-American) in nature rather than German.
It should also be noted that the telegram’s claim that three existing
trucks were insufficient to “process” the incoming weekly transports is
untenable. Each of these transports contained some 1,000 people (Mattogno/Graf
2005, pp. 200f.; Rüter et al. 1968ff., vol. 19, p. 195), so if
we assume five workdays a week, each van had to treat (1,000 ÷ 5 ÷
3 =) 67 people, which amounts to one gassing each day. It is therefore
pure nonsense that “the 3 [existing] S-wagons existing there [did] not
suffice for this purpose.” That shows that this telegram was produced in
order to make the alleged ongoing mass murder look even bigger than it
theoretically could have been, if all deported individuals had indeed
been gassed. This is yet another indication that the telegram has its
roots not in reality but in the imaginations of propagandists.