Nazi Germany
During trips to Russia in 1941, Heinrich Himmler learned the psychological impact on the Einsatzgruppen killers posed by the shooting of women and children. Hence, he commissioned Arthur Nebe to explore ways of killing that were less stressful for the killers. Nebe's experiments eventually led to the production of the gas van. This vehicle had already been used in 1940 for the gassing of East Prussian Pomeranian mental patients in Soldau, a camp located in the former Polish corridor. One application by the Nazis gas van became known in 1943 after the trial of members of crimes against humanity committed in the territory of the Krasnodar Territory of the USSR, where about 7,000 civilians were killed by gas poisoning. It was a vehicle with an airtight compartment for victims, into which exhaust gas was piped while the engine was running. As a result, the victims were gassed with carbon monoxide, resulting in death by the combined effects of carbon monoxide poisoning and suffocation. The suffocations usually occurred as the gas van was carrying the victims to a freshly dug pit or ravine for mass burial.
Gas vans were used, particularly at Chełmno extermination camp, until gas chambers were developed as a more efficient method for killing large numbers of people. In Belgrade, the gas van was known as "Dušegupka" and in the occupied parts of the USSR similarly as "душегубка" (dushegubka, literally (feminine) soul killer/exterminator).
The use of gas vans had two disadvantages:
- It was slow—some victims took twenty minutes to die.
- It was not quiet—The drivers could hear the victims' screams, which they found distracting and disturbing.
By June 1942 the main producer of gas vans, Gaubschat Fahrzeugwerke GmbH, delivered 20 gas vans in two models (for 30-50 and 70-100 individuals) to Einsatzgruppen, out of 30 ordered. Not one gas van was extant at the end of the war. The existence of gas vans first came to light in 1943 during the trial of Nazi collaborators involved in the gassing of 6700 civilians in Krasnodar. The total number of gas van gassings is unknown. One German document dated June 5, 1942 in occupied Minsk indicates that from December 1941 to June 1942 three gas vans were used to kill 97,000 civilians.
The gas vans are extensively discussed in some of the interviews in Claude Lanzmann's film, Shoah.
Read more about this topic: Gas Van
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