Gas Vans

Becker Letter dated May 16, 1942 on gas vans
Contemporary Source

1942-05-16 / The Becker Letter on Gas Vans: “The gassing is generally not carried out correctly … the persons being executed die of suffocation”

On May 16, 1942, SS-Untersturmführer August Becker submitted a report to the head of RSHA department II D, Walther Rauff, on his inspection of the operation of the homicidal gas vans at the Einsatzgruppen. Becker noted that the vehicles had become widely recognized, “that not only the authorities but also the civilian population referred to them as ‘death vehicles’ as soon as one of them appeared”. He also observed “various units have their own men unload the vehicle after the gassing,” and warned the commanders of “what enormous psychological and physical harm this work can cause to the men.” He states that “the gassing is generally not carried out correctly,” as drivers “consistently apply full throttle,” with the result that victims “die of suffocation.”

Report dated Februay 9, 1944
Contemporary Source

1944-02-09 Report About Nazi Extermination Methods: Insights From an SD Defector

In February 1944, Swiss intelligence received one 106-page report by a defector (agent code D 143) from Nazi Germany’s Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the SS’s intelligence branch. Dated 9 February 1944, this report offers an insider’s view of the internal disintegration, moral collapse, and infighting that plagued the Nazi foreign intelligence service, known as Amt VI. The SD defector described various Nazis’ extermination methods, experiments, and plans. He reveals that the commandos in the East adopted “the GPU method of a shot to the back of the neck” which was “widely used” with “in total, up to 100,000” victims. He also described the use of homicidal gas vans, known as “Nebe gas vans” after Arthur Nebe, the former head of Einsatzgruppe B and chief of the Criminal Technical Institute. According to the report: “rear compartment was sealed; 20 cm thick oak walls lined with sheet metal. Engine in front, from where exhaust gases are directed into the interior of the truck through a pipe.” The SD man noted that within Einsatzkommandos, most personnel were “completely drunk,” with as many as 40% suffering nervous breakdowns. He recalled that in in Summer 1943, Einsatzgruppe C chief Max Thomas informed him that “that approximately 6,000,000 people (Russians and Jews) had been disposed of”.

Cover Letter to Korherr report on Final Solution of the Jewish Question dated April 28, 1943
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1943-04-28 / The Korherr Report: Nazi Statistics on the “Final Solution” Through Early 1943

This post reproduces the so called Korherr Report, a statistical report on the “Final Solution of the European Jewish Question” up to 1943 and its accompanying cover letter from April 1943. Authored by SS statistician Richard Korherr for Heinrich Himmler, the report presents – through a veneer of euphemism and bureaucratic precision – the numerical decline of European Jewry via excess of deaths over births, emigration, deportation and so-called “evacuations” and “special treatement”. The report concludes that “European Jewry since 1933 … likely lost nearly half of its population”. A substantial portion of this loss is attributed to 1,274,166 Jews “processed through camps in the General Government” (i.e. Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor), 145,301 Jews “processed through camps in the Warthegau” and 633,300 Jews “evacuated in the Russian territories”.

Memo of June 5, 1942 on gas vans
Contemporary Source

1942-06-02 / SS-Officer Just’s Memo on Gas Vans: “97,000 have been processed using 3 deployed vehicles”

Memo dated June 5, 1942, authored by SS-Hauptsturmführer Willy Just of RSHA office II D 3 a (Motor Vehicle Department of the Security Police) on technical modifications to the gas vans used in mass killing operations. Just reports that “since December 1941 97,000 have been processed using 3 deployed vehicles, without any defects occurring in the vehicles” and “the known explosion in Kulmhof (Chełmno) is to be considered an isolated case due to an operating error”. He proposes the following “technical modifications to the special vehicles currently in operation and those under production”, among other things ventilation slots on the upper rear wall to allow “a rapid inflow of CO without causing overpressure”. The proposal was reviewed by Walther Rauff, head of the Motor Vehicle Department, on June 10, 1942. He approved the implementation of the modifications on a prototype vehicle.

1944 Swiss Report: Arthur Nebe Fled with Orders for Extermination and Hostage Shootings
Contemporary Source

1944-09-01 Swiss Report: SD Sources Claim Former Chief of Einsatzgruppe B Arthur Nebe Fled with “orders concerning the extermination of Jews”

On September 1, 1944, Swiss envoy Hans Frölicher sent a letter to Swiss Foreign Minister Marcel Pilet-Golaz reporting on news he had picked up in Berlin. According to information from the SD (Security Service), the fugitive head of the Reich Criminal Police Office and former chief of Einsatzgruppe B, Arthur Nebe, was “carrying a large amount of material with him – notably orders concerning the extermination of Jews, the shooting of hostages, and other punitive actions”. At the time, the SD feared he might hand this evidence over to the Allies. In reality, however, Nebe had not fled abroad – he was hiding near Berlin and was eventually captured by the Gestapo in January 1945. Footage of a mass gassing carried out by Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B was discovered in his Berlin apartment after the war.

D5 - Letter of 30 December 1944 on Kaltenbrunner's proposal to Himmler to kill with carbon monoxide
Contemporary Source

1944-12-30 Kaltenbrunner’s Execution Proposal to Himmler: “Carbon Monoxide Introduced Via an Apparatus Operated From the Driver’s Seat”

After the shooting of Generalleutnant Fritz von Brodowski while in Allied captivity on 28 October 1944, the Nazis retaliated by executing French Major General Gustave Mesny “while attempting to escape” on 19 January 1945. In a letter dated 30 December 1944, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Security Police, officially proposed to Himmler also the option that “carbon monoxide be introduced into the sealed rear compartment of the vehicle via an apparatus operated from the driver’s seat”.

Memo of May 17, 1943
Contemporary Source

1943-05-15 Opera and Gas-Chamber: Italian Fascist Delegation’s Visit to Nazi-Occupied Minsk

Between 20 and 29 September 1942, an Italian delegation led by Fascist Party secretary Aldo Vidussoni traveled from Milan through Litzmannstadt, Brest-Litowsk, Minsk, and Kharkov, reaching Millerovo near Rostov. Vidussoni’s account, recorded in Mussolini’s Secretariat documents, notes that “in Minsk, at the Opera Theater, we saw the belongings of thousands and thousands of murdered Jews piled up” and that “what struck the Italians the most was the method of killing”. In mid-May 1943, the German Foreign Office learnt about the incident from a report that Wilhelm Kube, the Generalkommissar for Belarus, had shown the Italian fascist delegation in Minsk “a gas chamber where the killing of Jews was supposedly carried out.” At the time, in September 1942, homicidal gas vans were actively operating near Minsk.

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