The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

88 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
head, on which this letter gives the impression to have been typed, did
not contain his SS rank, so that the writer added it using his inventive /- / /- /
improvisation. David Irving has remarked that the original of this letter,
which is kept in the Berlin Document Center biographical file on
Turner, does not have the German standard paper format (DIN A4, 210
mm × 297 mm) but instead U.S. letter format, a paper size which during
the war was not available in Europe. 55
A reproduction of the document (taken from Friedlander/Milton
1992, part 2, pp. 284-286) and its English translation can be found in
Appendix 6.
2.2.7.1. Problematic Content
– The first four paragraphs describe an event with many words without
even once stating what this is all about. What makes the author think
that the recipient knew what he was writing about? As far as I could
verify, there is no historical event – some decision in favor of Turner
and against some ominous “Wehrmacht” interests – which would
warrant such sentences. As a matter of fact, there had only been a
decision against Turner, whose attempt to gain Serbian support for
his occupational policies led to deteriorating relations between him
and his SS men, not the Wehrmacht. As a result of SS claims that
Turner was too soft on the Serbs, the anti-Serbian hardliner August
Meyzner was appointed as head of the local SS units in early 1942,
which seriously undermined Turner’s position (Browning 1995, pp.
134-136; Manoschek 1995, p. 170).
– The letter insinuates that this ominous foiled Wehrmacht intrigue
was directed not only against Himmler (whose title was Reichsführer
SS, not SS-Führer) and the SS, but also the “corps of civil
servants” (Beamtenschaft), which means all of Germany’s civil
servants. Such a Wehrmacht intrigue potentially affecting millions
of German civil servants sounds far-fetched to the point of being
outrageous, and I could not find anything in the literature confirming
this.
– The attachment mentioned in the letter is unknown. The letter insinuates
that it might have dealt with some pressing issues about Jews
in Serbia. At any rate, the writer takes this attached letter as a reason
to jump right into the middle of a completely different topic.
55 http://www.fpp.co.uk/Legal/Penguin/Reply/3.html and personal correspondence.