The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

86 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
quite independent of the unloading mechanism eventually chosen – as
well as its auxiliary purpose in case of an unloading with an extractable
grid: facilitating the extraction of the load.
The low height of the gridwork designed to prevent that the load
doesn’t fall between the end of the floor grid and the cargo box’s front
wall isn’t just an objection to my hypothesis. It is an even more grave
argument against the orthodox hypothesis according to which these
RSHA special vehicles are identical with the infamous “gas vans” used
to kill numerous living, that is to say: standing people crammed together
in the cargo box with exhaust gases. It is obvious that, after the gassing
operation, many of the tightly stacked corpses at the front part of
the cargo box would have fallen over this small gridwork during unloading,
thus preventing them from being automatically removed, no
matter what the unloading mechanism would have been. To prevent
standing people from toppling over a fence-like structure requires a
height at least three times higher than requested (one meter and more).
Another argument against the “gas van” hypothesis is the low height
of the cargo box of only 1.70 m (memo of 27 April 1942). After installation
of the retractable floor grid this height was reduced by 7.5 cm to a
mere 162.5 cm (ibid. as well as order of 30 April 1942). Another even
more drastic reduction of the free height occurred due to the new requested
version with the floor grid rolling on U-shape rails (letter of 23
June, #3), which could only be done by lifting the floor grid even higher
(see Marais’ drawing on p. 311).
Since the floor grid had to be installed on top of the wheel housings
– which usually protrude much higher than just 7.5 cm from a cargo
box floor – and since the lateral U-shaped guide rail would have rested
on the mentioned extension of the wheel housings, much more than the
claimed 7.5 cm would have been lost. As a matter of fact, the floor grid
itself would already have had a height of some 5 cm, if it was to bear
the weight of up to ten panicking people per square meter. I assume
therefore that the height was reduced by at least 30 to 50 cm, which
would have reduced the available height above the grid to some 1.20 to
1.40 m. Quite apart from the reduction of the maximum loading capacity
affected by this, it goes without saying that no grown-up individual
would have been able to stand upright in that cargo box: The “passengers”
would have had to bend over or even crawl into the van.
Another argument against the gas van hypothesis is the vehicle model
chosen. During the war, the German Wehrmacht obtained almost