User talk:Holgerjan

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Picture of Gas van in en.Wikipedia

This Van is clearly a Magirus. Nothing is known about gas vans from "Magirus". It should be removed because gas vans are known from the companies Saurer, Diamond T, Opel and Renault. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomas Maierhofer (talk • contribs) 07:34, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

My friend Thomas Maierhofer is right: see Link: deathcamps.org/gas_chambers/gas_chambers_vans --Holgerjan (talk) 15:10, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

essentials from the Weblink above: The well-known photos of the Magirus van which was found in Kolo (near Chelmno) after the war, probably do not show a gas van. [...]

... Dr. Leon Zamosc was interested few weeks ago in finding a graphic illustration of the gas vans used at Chelmno. I made some survey (with an assistance of Marek Jannasz) and here are the results:

The case of Chelmno death camp was investigated by the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (it was the commission's name at the beginning of it's existence) starting from May 1945. The commission received the information that in the town KOLO (ca. 12 km from Chelmno) in the former factory of Ostrowski there was a van which, according to the witnesses, was used in the death center at Chelmno. The van was found, photographed and researched. The photos taken then are available in the Main Commission's Archives in Warsaw (signatures 47398, 47396, 47397, 47399; the best one is 47398). The captions of these photographs are till today: "a car for killing people by the exhaust fumes at Chelmno". One of these photos was reproduced in Fleming's book "Hitler and the Final Solution" with the information that it is a photograph of a "gaswagon" used in Chelmno.

Despite of their captions, the photographs do not show the gas van used in the Chelmno death camp. It is clear from the testimonies of Polish witnesses kept in the same archives of the Main Commission (collection "Ob", file 271 and others). Witnesses to whom the van photographed in Kolo was shown did not confirm that it was one of those used in Chelmno for killing people. Some of them only said that it was similar to those described in their testimonies, but not the same. The most common answer was: "I didn't see this one".

The inspection of the van in Ostrowski factory, done on 13 November 1945 by the judge J.Bronowski, did not confirm the existence of any elements of system of gassing of the van's closed platform. The witnesses called this van "a pantechnicon van" (a van to transport furniture). It was produced by Magirus-Werke with a diesel type engine of Deutz. The plate on the engine stated: Humboldt-Deutz A.G. Magirus-Werke Ulm (Donau) Baujahr 1939 Lieferdat 739 Abn-Stempel. Fahrgestell Nr. 9282/38 Nutzlast kg 2700 Fahrgestell-Baumuster 023. Eigengewicht 4980 kg. Motor Baumuster FoM 513 zul. Gesamtgew. 7900 Leistung P.S. 105 cm3 7412. Zulässige Achsendrücke vorn kg 2400 hinten 5500." The thickness of the car's wooden body was 7 cm, of the door - 8 cm. The walls, door, ceiling and floor were covered from the inside with the 2 mm sheet iron. The car was painted in grey- lead color. Under this paint the inscription was seen on the door of the cab: Otto Koehn Spedition Ruf 516 Zeulen .....da i.TH".

I cite all these details to make possible the further comments to the story of this van. It is my feeling that there are some unclear points in this story. Nobody explained for what purpose this van was used? Its door was tightened with an impregnated canvas. What for? Some witnesses had seen this car in the area of the forest of Chelmno starting from the spring of 1942. It is possible that it belonged to the SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof, too. I came across a version that this van was used for a disinfection of victims' clothes but there are no grounds for it. In 1945 the prosecutors came to the conclusion that this van was not a gas van of Chelmno.