The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 87
100,000 medium-size trucks (3 tons) of the type Opel Blitz, which had a
3,600 cm³ gasoline engine. 54 Equipped with an appropriate cargo box,
this vehicle could have served as a “gas van.” Yet the RSHA instead
decided to buy Saurer heavy goods trucks, which had Diesel engines
and were therefore only capable of slowly torturing the intended victims
to death. Considering that the RSHA even wanted the cargo box to be
shortened (see letter of 23 June 1942 in Appendix 4, pp. 323ff.), why
then buy a long unsuited truck to begin with, when shorter, suitable
trucks are to be had at every street corner and probably for much lower
prices? It must therefore be assumed that the purpose of these vehicles
was not to kill with exhaust gases.
2.2.7. The Turner Letter, 11 April 1942
This letter claims to have been written on 11 April 1942 by SS-
Gruppenführer (Major General) Dr. Harald Turner, who at that time
was the head of the German military administration in Serbia. It was directed
at General Karl Wolff, who was chief of Himmler’s personal
staff. During his own trial in 1964 in Munich Wolff insisted that he had
no knowledge of what was happening to the Jews – as Himmler’s adjutant
(Giese 1964). It is not known whether Wolff ever received this letter.
Harald Turner had a PhD in law, hence could be considered welleducated.
In spite of this, his letter is riddled with spelling errors,
butchered German language, and nonsensical content, which I will discuss
subsequently. The author of the letter tried to emulate the runeshaped
SS type, which was included on official typewriters of the era,
by superimposing a double slashes on a dash and adding another double
slash a three-quarter line lower: /- / /- / (although I don’t know how this
could be accomplished with such accuracy for all 4 cases, as a subscript-like
half-line lift wouldn’t have been enough).
As the head of Serbia’s wartime military administration, Turner or
his secretary must have had access to a proper typewriter sporting the
runic SS key. But even if he had no such typewriter, using a simple SS
in replacement was common and acceptable. I have never seen such a
forced SS rune on an official letter of that era before, and neither has
anyone else I’ve asked. It is also awkward that Turner’s personal letter-
54 See www.cokebottledesign.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=typenspezifisches:opel_blitz_3_to_3_6-36.