The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 81
claim a forgery. The most obvious proof for a forgery, however, is the
fact that the Just letter, dated June 5, is actually referring in its point 2
to a consultation between the RSHA and Gaubschat, which the letter of
23 June 1942 shows to have taken place only 11 days later: on 16 June
1942!
It is difficult to imagine that such anomalies are a pure coincidence
and that the pre-dating was not been a deliberate act.
2.2.4.5. Comparison of the Three Versions of the Just Document
Interestingly enough, although the Just document claims to be the
“onliest” copy, it actually exists in at least three different “onliest original”
forms. Two of them are easily accessible, as they have been reproduced
in widely available books, whereas the third is a photocopy of
DIN A4 size (21 cm × 29.7 cm) in the file R 58/871 of the German
Federal Archives. The differences between those three versions are
summarized here and are also given in more detail in Table 2: 51
– The first “original” is in the German Federal Archives. We take it as
the standard here.
– The second “original” was used by Kogon et al. (1983, pp. 333-
337). Here several text underlining have been added, plus on the last
page vertical marks at the edge, the word “ja” (yes) next to them, as
well as an initial and date claimed to stem from Rauff (“R10/6
”) are
missing.
Table 2: Differences between three version of the Just letter
Page German Federal Archives NS-Massentötungen… NS-Prozesse
1 no underlinings date line underlined; three no underlinings
lines from “Seit” to
“auftreten” underlined
3 no underlinings three lines from “Es
wurde” to “starkes” are
underlined
no underlinings
4 no underlinings line from “Drängen” to
“erfolgte” is underlined
no underlinings
5 no underlinings the line “SS-
Obersturmbannführer
Rauff” is underlined
no underlinings
5 right margin marking with no marking, no word, no no marking, no word, no
word “ja” (yes) plus initial
with date present: “R10/6 ”
initial or date
initial or date
51 For the archival version see Appendix 4 (p. 318). For the two version published in books
see Appendix 5, starting on p. 334.