The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 97
2.3. German Special Vehicles
Orthodox historiography about the Third Reich is full of speculations
about the real meaning of so-called “code words” used by Third
Reich officials in a wide variety of documents. “Gas vans” are no exception
to this rule. As we will see later, there are several German documents
frequently quoted in the context of the so-called “gas vans”
which include words like “Sonderwagen,” “Sonderfahrzeuge,” or “Spezialwagen,”
all of which translate to “special vehicle.” Except for the
Einsatzgruppe report discussed in chapter 2.2.8., there is no known
German wartime document using the term “gas vans.” The mere appearance
of terms like “Spezialwagen” prompted German historian Mathias
Beer to claim in his article on the alleged German wartime “gas
vans” (1987, p. 403, note 5):
“The connection [of terms like Spezialwagen] with the camouflage
word Sonderbehandlung [special treatment], i.e., killing […] is
obvious.”
Although it might seem obvious at first sight, this is so only because
modern historians have become conditioned to see such a link, even if it
doesn’t exist. A brief look into the nomenclature of German Wehrmacht
vehicles would have prevented Beer to jump to such conclusions, because
every vehicle of the German armed forces which was not a merely
repainted vehicle taken from civil serial production but which was
custom-made for the armed forced was called “Sonder(kraft)fahrzeug”
(special [motor] vehicle). Hence the German Wehrmacht had hundreds
of such “Sonderkraftfahrzeuge,” which were known as “Sd. Kfz 1” to
“Sd. Kfz 250” and higher (Davies 1973; Milsom 1975; Oswald 1990;
Frank 1992), and these vehicles also included all the German armored
vehicles (tanks), which were never officially called Panzer. 61
A different issue is the term “S-Wagen,” which can also be found in
German wartime documents connected with the alleged “gas vans.”
Although Beer believes this term to be an “abbreviation of spezial or
sonder” (ibid.), this isn’t true either. The “S” referred to the type of
drive (Oswald 1990, p. 177; similar Spielberger 1977, p. 153f.):
61 See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkraftfahrzeug;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SdKfz_designations.