The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 75
– The author of the document is nevertheless convinced that such an
overloading would occur, but he discovers a palliative remedy: “the
load striving towards the back door always predominantly lies there”!
7. Remark: Can one seriously believe that nine to ten persons
crammed onto each square meter can compact themselves even more
and thus shift their collective center of mass? And apart: How could the
victims strive toward any location during a mobile gassing operation,
that is, while the car rolled off-road, jostling the load back and forth,
left and right? If there ever had been a danger of overloading an axle, it
would have been during off-road transit. If this sentence proves anything,
then the fact that nowhere near ten persons per square meter were
ever crammed into that cargo box, as moving collectively in one direction
and coming to lie predominantly at a certain part of the cargo box
presupposes that it cannot have been cram-packed with people.
In brief: a slight shortening of the cargo box could not have caused
an overloading of the front axle, and even if that had been the case, then
this would most certainly not have been compensated by the victims
striving toward the rear of the truck. It should also be noted that only a
massive overloading can lead to premature wear or even to a broken axle,
as the load-bearing capacities of axles is in general generously designed.
3. Relocating the exhaust gas filler pipe upwards
The author of the memo writes:
“The connecting hoses between the exhaust pipe and the vehicle
frequently rust through, because they are corroded on the inside by
accruing fluids.”
In chapter 2.2.3.5. I have already discussed the improbability that
exhaust hoses rust through within a few months. It would have taken
years before such metal hoses had rusted through.
The subsequently stated request to change the exhaust gas entry
opening implies that as of then the gas had been piped into the cargo
box through just one opening in the cargo box floor.
Udo Walendy claims that by connecting the hoses conducting the
gases to the floor of the cargo box, it had to be assumed right from the
start that fluids would enter into it, be it during a gassing procedure or
while cleaning the cargo box (Walendy 1979, p. 30). I don’t agree with
this, as any engineer would have rightly assumed that any liquid which
might have seeped into the hose would have been driven out and/or