The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

92 SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS
ference on 20 January 1942 had established the bureaucratic means to
implement this “complete solution,” the road was prepared to deport
these Jews.
In this context it is interesting to note that Browning reports about
Turner’s intervention with Felix Benzler, at that time Plenipotentiary
for Foreign Affairs in Belgrade, in order to prevent the execution of the
last 1,500 male Jews as hostages by trying to have them deported instead
(Browning 1978, p. 61; 2004, p. 343).
Hence, in real life Turner was relatively “soft” on the Serbs in general
and on the Serbian Jews in particular and had no interest in having
them executed. The letter analyzed here, however, gives the opposite
impression.
None of the problematic issues raised above are ever even mentioned,
let alone addressed, by orthodox historians.
Could the well-educated Dr. Turner have written such an imbecilic
letter on U.S. stationary with its phantasmagorical content while at once
toying around with his typewriter – or have his secretary do so – in order
to compose some artistic rendering of the SS rune?
2.2.8. Activity Report by Einsatzgruppe B
An “Activity and situation report of Einsatzgruppe B” of 1 March
1942, covering the time from 16 to 28 February 1942 59 (cf. Gerlach
1997, p. 68), mentions in passing that this group had received two large
“gas vans” (Gaswagen) while having already two small ones. According
to Gerlach this document was discovered in the 1990s among the
papers of the Staatssicherheit, which was Communist East Germany’s
secret service until 1990. Needless to say, this isn’t exactly a trustworthy
source.
I have reproduced pages 7 and 8 of this report in Appendix 7. The
relevant passages read as follows:
“The following gas vans which arrived in Smolensk on 23 February
42 have been distributed as follows:
EK 8:truck Saurer Pol 71 462
EK 9:truck Saurer Pol 71457 Both vehicles arrived with defects
in Smolensk and were allocated to the Einsatzkommandos after
the defects had been repaired. After the conclusion of the operation
59
Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen
DDR, ZUV 9, vol. 31, p. 159.