The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 93
at the EK 8, the two smaller gas vans will be transferred to SK 7a
and to SK 7b.
After deducting the lost vehicles, the current inventory is as follows:[…]
Staff: […]19 cars 4 trucks 3 special vehicles […]
EK 8:35 cars 3 trucks 1 ambulance 1 gas van
EK 9:36 cars (of which one radio site) 5 trucks 1 gas van[…]
In addition it is necessary during the advance to staff all heavy
vehicles – like repair truck, bus, gas van and tank truck – with two
drivers.”
As far as I know, this is a unique occurrence of the term
“Gaswagen” in a German wartime document. Here the reader needs to
keep in mind that there exist literally thousands of documents by the
Einsatzgruppen listing in cruel detail, among other things, when they
executed whom and why. But gassings are not mentioned once, and gas
vans only occur in this one document from the archives of a communist
secret service infamous for their lies and forgeries.
The vehicles in question are specified in this document as Saurer
trucks; hence they were equipped with Diesel engines, which are unsuitable
for homicidal purposes. Furthermore, they were apparently not
considered to be “special vehicles,” the term used for homicidal “gas
vans” in the telegrams of 501-PS and the Just document, because “3
special vehicles” are listed separately for the staff’s motor pool. It
seems likely that these trucks were part of the set equipped with the
Gaubschat cargo boxes, which moreover, as we have seen, were not
suited for transporting standing people, among other things due to their
limited height (see chapter 2.2.6.).
It is possible that these trucks were equipped with wood gas generators.
However, in this case the term “gas van” is unlikely to refer to
them potentially having such a gas generator, as the report appears to
list the vehicles not by fuel source but rather by general vehicle type. If
the Saurer trucks had been normal trucks merely using wood gas as
their fuel, I would expect them to be listed among the normal trucks. 60
It is odd, though, that the “two smaller gas vans” mentioned in this
document as currently belonging to EK 8 but to be reassigned later to
60 Although a separation by fuel type may occur in documents. For instance, the activity
reports of the Auschwitz motor pool sorted the collective kilometers driven by its vehicles
by the type of fuel used: Diesel & gasoline, wood gas, and “propellant gas” (Treibgas),
probably referring to natural gas: Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennii Vojennii Archiv (Russian
national war archives), Moscow, ref. 502-1-181, p. 246; see Appendix 7.