[last updated on 1 February 2020]
The following is a compilation of photographs/photostats, transcriptions and translations of the published contemporary German documents on homicidal gas vans. The documents are powerful evidence on homicidal gassings by German paramilitary forces and provide insight into the construction, dispatch and use of the gas vans as well into technical modifications planned after extensive field experience.
On gas vans and Holocaust denial, see the series of postings Rebuttal of Alvarez on Gas Vans and Mattogno, his Einsatzgruppen book and the Gas Vans.
List of documents
1.) Draft of a letter Erhard Wetzel to Hinrich Lohse of 25 October 1941 on "gassing apparatuses" and "Jews who are not capable of work, are eliminated with the Brackian remedy"; this may refer either to gas vans or euthanasia-like gas chambers.
2.) Radio telegram from Arthur Nebe to Einsatzgruppe B of 13 December 1941 on "special vehicles".
3.) Report from Einsatzgruppe B of 1 March 1942 on "gas vans".
4.) Letter from Walther Rauff to the Criminal Technical Institute at the Reich Criminal Police Office of 26 March 1942 on "special wagons" and "gas bottles with carbon monoxide" for concentration camp Mauthausen.
5.) Letter from Harald Turner to Karl Wolff of 11 April 1942 on "I shot dead all the Jews I could get my hands on in this area, concentrated all the Jewish women and children in a camp and with the help of the SD got my hands on a 'delousing van', that in about 14 days to 4 weeks will have brought about the definitive clearing out of the camp".
6.) Memo of 27 April 1942 on a "fast unloading device for the special vehicles".
7.) Letter from Walther Rauff to the Gaubschat company of 30 April 1942 on "extractable grates for the 10 delivered Saurer chassis".
8.) Letter from the Gaubschat company to Walther Rauff of 14 May 1942 on "10 yet to be delivered special vehicles".
9.) Letter from August Becker to Walther Rauff of 16 May 1942 on "death van" and "the persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by dozing off as was planned".
10.) Memo of Willy Just of 5 June 1942 on "ninety-seven thousand have been processed using three vans", "to facilitate the rapid distribution of CO" and "when the back door is closed and it gets dark inside, the load pushes hard against the door".
11.) Telegram from Emanuel Schäfer to Friedrich Pradel of 9 June 1942 on "the special order" with "a special wagon Saurer".
12.) Telegram from Heinz Truehe to the RSHA of 15 June 1942 on "special treatment" of Jews with "S-wagons" and "20 exhaust hoses for the existing 3 S-wagons (2 Daimond, 1 Saurer), as those available are already leaky".
13.) Telegram from the RSHA to the commander of Security Police and Security Service Ostland of 22 June 1942 on "S wagon...transfer of a 5 t Saurer...100 m hose will be sent along.
14.) Memo of 23 June 1942 on "30 special coachworks for the delivered chassis...changes which cannot be considered there for reasons of secrecy are to be made in an in-house workshop".
15.) Letter from the Gaubschat company to the RSHA of 18 September 1942 on "Coachwork f. delivered 10 Saurer Chassis".
16.) Letter from the Gaubschat company to the RSHA of 24 September 1942 on "Coachwork f. delivered 10 Saurer Chassis".
17.) Radio Message from Walther Bierkamp to Ernst Kaltenbrunner of 18 February 1943 on "a g-van was blown up and burned on march".
18.) Note by Eberhard von Thadden of 15 May 1943 on "Kube had shown the Italians a gas chamber in which the killing of the Jews was allegedly carried out" in Minsk
19.) Letter from Eberhard von Thadden to Adolf Windecker of 17 May 1943 on "the last remnants of deported Jews who had been killed in a gas chamber. Allegedly, the fascists were then shown such a gas chamber" in Minsk
20.) Report of the Ghetto Lodz administration of 2 September 1944 on "truck 71449" driven by "Laabs" refueling 90 liters of gasoline.
Photographs/Photostats, Transcriptions and Translations