Gas Vans
Genocide of the Jews
Overview
After the invention of the gas chambers to exterminate the Jews, gas vans were put on a trial basis at the concentration camps Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen. During
World War II, two versions of the gas vans were used after passing trial experiment. The small versions which carried about 50 victims, and the bigger ones carried about 70 victims. The wagons had an air-sealed car-body and looked like furniture vans. With a removable tube the exhaust fumes could be led into the car body. A barred lamp could be used to illuminate the interior.
Gas Van - Outside
This is the outside of a WW2 Nazi gas van. It is huge because of its need to fit from 50-70 Jews inside.
Gas Van - Inside
This is the inside of a gas van. It is very open and eery imagining 70 Jews crammed in here with the wagon door shut. The vans were built so that the exhaust fumes would release into the car body, killing the Jews.
Gas Van
Just another gas van, this one looks like the smaller version van
Gas Van Cartoon
Below is how British cartoonist Giles pictured a Nazi gas van in a cartoon which was published in a British national newspaper in early February 1944. The Soviet show-trial of 3 German prisoners of war and one Russian “traitor to the motherland” had taken place in Kharkov late between December 15th – 18th, 1943. At which, all four had confessed to being complicit in the murder of peaceful Soviet citizens in gas vans: