The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 63
expected in a hypothetical mass murder scenario, is slightly alkaline and
would therefore reduce the corrosion of the acidic exhaust gases by
neutralizing them partially. 43
Hence it takes years before metal exhaust hoses or pipes rust
through, in particular if they are zinc-plated. Why then did Riga request
20(!) new exhaust hoses for three trucks, and Berlin was prepared to
sent 100 m (which amounts to an individual hose length of 5 m), although
they had to reduce that amount “for technical reasons” to just 5
m × 10 m. This would mean that theses hoses were expected to become
leaky again after just a few months. Was someone slashing them with
axes or knives? Or were they really dangling so low that they scraped
the roads?
I want to point out moreover that the one information which the Berlin
recipient of the telegram from Riga really needed in order to supply
these exhaust hoses is not included: their diameter, as such hoses come
in a broad variety. Considering that two unusual Diamond trucks had to
be equipped with them, this information would not have been easy to
come by and could not be expected to be known by some pencil pusher
in Berlin.
2.2.4. The Just Document, 5 June 1942
This file memo is one of the documents contained in the dossier R
58/871 fº 1 of the German Bundesarchiv in Koblenz which comprises
22 pages altogether. This dossier contains correspondence regarding
“special vehicles.” 44 The document quoted below has been reproduced
in the German edition of Kogon et al. in its entirety (1983, pp. 333-
337). The French and English editions contain only a reproduction of
the first page and a translation of the complete text (Engl.: 1993, pp.
228-231).
Ingrid Weckert has analyzed this document as well in her two papers
(1985, pp. 23-28; 2003, pp. 231-236). My subsequent analysis is based
to a sizeable part on Marais’ observations.
43 On the corrosive effect of various chemicals on steel see
www.engineeringtoolbox.com/metal-corrosion-resistance-d_491.html.
44 See the German original in Appendix 4.