The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

74 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
with exhaust gases would have taken only a few minutes (see chapter
1.3.2.), an extension of this time by some 20% isn’t exactly something
any mass murderer would be worried about. This proves that the author’s
worries were misplaced at best.
– The author of the document continues his train of thought and
claims that the shortening of the cargo box (that is, the gassing box) by
one meter would allow “a substantially shorter operation time” due to
the reduction of free space while keeping the load.
5. Remark: Reducing the Saurer cargo box length from 5.8 m by one
meter reduces its length by about 17%, so the loading capacity goes
down accordingly. If assuming a box width of 2.3 meters and a loading
density of ten persons per square meter, then the load would go down
by some 22 persons from 133 to 111. The corresponding calculations
for free space would look similar as those above. Which way ever one
looks at it, there is no reason to assume that such a change would lead
to “a substantially shorter operation time.” Apart: if the gassing device
had been constructed properly and if the amount of gas flowing through
was sufficient – which could have been the case only and exclusively if
an opening existed – then the existence of free space had basically no
influence on the speed with which suffocation occurs. It can therefore
be ascertained that the “Saurer special vehicles,” if maintaining their
off-road capabilities had required it (which is not evident at all), could
have been loaded with considerably less than nine to ten persons per
square meter without noticeably increasing the required gassing time.
Hence there was no apparent reason for the demanded shortening of the
cargo box.
– As if he had second thoughts, the author of the memo points out
that a shortening of the cargo box “would result in a disadvantageous
weight displacement” and that “an overloading of the front axle occurs.”
6. Remark: This is not true. Although the shortening of the rear part
does indeed lead to a shift of the center of mass of the – presumably
evenly distributed – load toward the front, since the total weight has
been reduced (this is, after all, the initial hypothesis), a simple calculation
shows that no noticeable overloading of the front axle can occur.
Provided, of course, that the vehicle isn’t overloaded in general, which
would have been the case with a loading density of nine to ten persons
per m², but that would have primarily affect the rear axle bearing the
main load, not the front axle.