Mattogno, his Einsatzgruppen book and the Gas Vans
The genesis of the Einsatzgruppen gas vans can be traced back to Fort VII in Posen. Here, the Nazis conducted mass gassing experiments for the Euthanasia action in Winter 1939/40. One branch developed to stationary gas chambers in the Altreich, the other developed to a gas van in the Warthegau, both types operating with carbon monoxide (CO) from gas cylinders. A killing commando of the Gestapo Posen, Sonderkommando (SK) Lange, employed the CO gas van. The war against the Soviet Union with its extermination policy pushed the development of a new mass killing technique since the mass shooting of people not fit for military service posed a considerable strain on the German paramilitary forces. The method had to fit the use in the wide Russian territory. The carbon monoxide gas cylinders already in use were considered not suitable for logistic reasons. In September 1941, gassing with engine exhaust was tried on a large scale in mental asylums in Minsk and Mogilev, followed by the testing of a prototype gas van with engine exhaust.
This is a condensed representation emphasising the main topics, which are interwoven to the genesis of the gas vans. Each topic can be expanded with numerous contemporary documentary and testimonial evidence. The result is a large network of directly or indirectly corroborating evidence spun around the subject. The challenge for Holocaust denial would be to deconstruct the network, put forward new evidence and interpretations, establish new connections and show superior properties (explanatory power and scope) of their result. In reality, the sole action of deniers is axing a few connections of a complex network established by decades of historical research and leave the loose ends open or attach some free hanging premises.
To illustrate some of the evidence deniers would have to deal with, I have prepared a number of diagrams. In the middle are statements, which are linked to evidence above and below. A blue box is a document, a grey box is a testimony and a red box is a statement from a previous diagram (thus, connecting the diagrams). Keep in mind that this simplified representation. For examples, any boxes pointing on a statement could be mutually linked to each other creating the network of corroborating evidence.
In addition, I have marked with dotted boxes how the Holocaust denier Carlo Mattogno has dealt with the evidence. It will not surprise that he has ignored most of it.
Diagram 1: Euthanasia by Carbon Monoxide Gassing
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| Diagram 1: Euthanasia by carbon monoxide gas |
The Euthanasia is an integral part of the genesis of the gas vans. It proves that the Nazis systematically executed people without death sentence and without the consent of victims or their relatives. Secondly, it shows that the Nazis used pure carbon monoxide to kill people, which was a pre-stage of the gassing with engine exhaust. Thirdly, a homicidal gas van with carbon monoxide cylinders was developed for the Euthanasia in the Warthegau.
This is obviously an important issue, so how did Mattogno address it in his treatment of the genesis of the gas vans? (section 6.2 and 6.3 in Mattogno, The Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories). To begin with, he failed to recognize the importance of the Euthanasia in this context. He writes that the “orthodox Holocaust theory on euthanasia,..in the present context, is only important due to the alleged criminal function of the Kriminaltechnisches[sic] Institut” (p.296). But the role of the Kriminaltechnische Institut of the Security Police (KTI) in Berlin in disguising the delivery of poison gas cylinders for the Euthanasia is only one element of the picture.
On Mathias Beer's Die Entwicklung der Gaswagen beim Mord an den Juden, Mattogno comments that "this reconstruction [of the Euthanasia], as far as the use of steel cylinders of carbon monoxide for homicidal purposes is concerned, is based exclusively on testimonies". However, there exist numerous documents on carbon monoxide gas in the context of the Euthanasia. Mattogno ignores this evidence in his Einsatzgruppen book. Was it really too much to consult specialist literature, such as Klee, Euthanasie im NS-Staat (or our blog for that matter)?
Moreover, Mattogno seems to have forgotten that he already knew about two documents on CO gas cylinders and Euthanasia from Kogon's Nazi Mass Murder, see Figure 1 and here.
The letter by Walther Rauff to the KTI of 26 March 1942 is likewise ignored in this context, even though it directly attests the "criminal function" of the KTI. The document is only briefly mentioned in a footnote of a later section and he references to his forgery allegation in Inside the Gas Chambers - refuted at this blog between January and October 2016.
Sources: Contemporary German Documents on Carbon Monoxide Gas and Bottles Employed for the Nazi Euthanasia and Contemporary German Documents on Homicidal Gas Vans Doc 4
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| Figure 1: Mattogno's omission of evidence on CO gas cylinders and Euthanasia cited in Kogon's Nazi Mass Murder, he knew earlier (top and right). He also seems to wonder why not doing any research results in not knowing something (left side). |
Diagram 2: SK Lange (Killing Commando)
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| Digram 2: SK Lange (Killing Commando) |
The next topic is the nature of SK Lange. As pointed out in the first part of this series, Mattogno is helplessly confused, does not know about its headquarters and where it was operating in 1941 (not Soldau). On the activity of the commando, he writes something about "real transfer" (p.298) and "the evacuations were real" (p.299).
The only "real" thing is that he has no clue what the commando was doing. It was not a transport enterprise of an aid organization focused on mentally ill people, as one might decipher Mattogno's mumbling above.
According to contemporary German documents (almost entirely ignored by Mattogno), it was a killing commando of the Security Police and Service in the Warthegau to carry out Euthanasia operations.
Sources: Sonderkommando Lange in German Documents: Euthanasia 1940/41
Diagram 3: SK Lange (Killing Commando with CO Gas Van)
The conclusion that the Nazi Euthanasia employed carbon monoxide cylinders and that SK Lange was killing people can be combined with numerous testimonial evidence on its operation (ignored by Mattogno) to obtain the new information that its men used a gas van with carbon monoxide gas cylinders.
Sources: Sonderkommando Lange in German Documents: Euthanasia 1940/41  |
| Diagram 3: SK Lange (Killing Commando with CO Gas Van) |
The conclusion that the Nazi Euthanasia employed carbon monoxide cylinders and that SK Lange was killing people can be combined with numerous testimonial evidence on its operation (ignored by Mattogno) to obtain the new information that its men used a gas van with carbon monoxide gas cylinders.
Diagram 4: SK Lange (Killing Commando with CO Gas Van with Kaiser's Kaffee-Geschäft inscription)
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| Diagram 4: SK Lange (Killing Commando with CO Gas Van with Kaiser's Kaffee-Geschäft Inscription) |
The result of Diagram 3 can be further refined with testimonial evidence to find that the gassing trailer had previously belonged to the company Kaiser's Kaffee-Geschäft (colonial goods business). The sides of the mobile gas chamber were inscribed with the companies' name.
Mattogno writes that "the story of the 'gas vans' is unfounded from the very start" - but why did he not start to address the issue then? Instead of dissecting the known evidence, he prefers to lecture about the Kaiser's Kaffee-Geschäft company, which is surely interesting, but not relevant, and makes up the absurd explanation - not backed up by any evidence - that "the name in question was a distortion of "LC-Koffer'" (p.292).
Sources: Sonderkommando Lange in German Documents: Euthanasia 1940/41
Diagram 5: Engine Exhaust Gassing in Minsk and Mogilev
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| Diagram 5: Engine Exhaust Gassing in Minsk and Mogilev |
The knowledge about SK Lange clearing asylums with carbon monoxide gas can be plugged to the topic of the mass killing trials on mentally ill people in Mogilev and Minsk in September 1941. The killing commando of the Warthegau was called to White Ruthenia to "demonstrate" its procedure but was busy in his home province with the extermination of the sick and unfit Jews, see also this document missed so far in the discussion and probably published here for the first time.
Intercepted radio signal by Wilhelm Koppe to Polizei-Regiment Mitte of 3 September 1941:
TRANSCRIPTION
An Pol.Regt. Mitte Russland. Zu Ft. Nr 19 vom 2.9.41. LANGE ist zur Zeit mit der Durchführung grösseren Aufgaben des Gauleiters stark in Anspruch genommen. Zeitpunkt des Freiwerdens lässt sich zur Zeit nicht bestimmen. Der Höhere SS und Pol.führer Posen.
TRANSLATION
To Police Regiment Central Russia. On telex no. 19 of 2.9.41. Lange is currently heavily involved in carrying out major tasks of the Gauleiter. The date when he becomes available can not be determined at the moment. The Higher SS and Police Leader Posen.(PRO HW 16/32, ZIP/GPD 348, traffic 3.9.41, item 7)
The leader of Einsatzgruppe B, Arthur Nebe, grabbed the opportunity to test explosives and engine exhaust on patients of the asylums in Minsk and Mogilev. It provided the technique of killing with gasoline engine exhaust for the gas vans dispatched to the East (Figure 6).
Mattogno dedicates a whole section to the testimony of the Higher SS and Police Leader, Erich von dem Bach-Zewelski. He dismisses his most detailed account on a show shooting for the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on 15 August 1941 in Minsk as falsification of the "Jewish editors" of Aufbau. But he had already shown in the Italian edition of the same book that the exact opposite is true (see part 2 of this series on Mental Degeneration or Dishonesty, Your Choice!).
The essence of the detailed account also appears in a short handwritten manuscript of von dem Bach-Zewelski. The forgery allegation is therefore not only false but also irrelevant for the subject at hand.
Mattogno forgets between his full quotes, smearing of the newspaper Aufbau and mocking historians - all of whom have contributed orders more to our knowledge of the fate of the European Jews than himself - to explain the manuscript of von dem Bach-Zewelski on the show shooting and Himmler's order to "to make use of a more human method of killing". His claim on p. 291 ("Connecting the genesis of the 'gas vans'...to this anecdote of Himmler’s visit to Minsk is therefore a simple fictional narrative...") is a nice example of how Mattogno axes the connection of a piece of evidence for no reason other than his motive to deny the Holocaust, but does not attach anything meaningful to the dangling bonds.
Himmler attended the show shooting and subsequently visited an asylum in Minsk. Von dem Bach-Zewelski tried to get a killing commando the next day. The asylums in Minsk and Mogilev were cleared within the next weeks by Einsatzgruppe B. All of this follows from German documents and strongly corroborates that Himmler had issued an order to clear the asylum other than by shooting, as explained by von dem Bach-Zewelski (omitting his own responsibility, of course).
On the gassing with engine exhaust in Minsk and Mogilev in September 1941, Mattogno entirely ignores in the English edition of his Einsatzgruppen book the film footage of the action in Mogilev. In the Italian edition p.290-293 the footage is dismissed as Soviet forgery largely referring to an article debunked on this blog in September 2016.
The testimony of the KTI chemist Albert Widmann is the only discussed by Mattogno in Einsatzgruppen. The Italian edition adds the testimony of one more witness, the Novinki asylum staff member Akimova. Mattogno ignores most accounts on the events in Minsk and Mogilev.
His critique of Widmann's testimony consists of the typical mix of misinterpretation, guesswork and not considering evasion as defence strategy of perpetrators. For example, he argues "why would Nebe have expected any effect from the exhaust gas of an ordinary automobile after just five minutes, when in the euthanasia centres the presumed gassing with pure carbon monoxide in possibly much smaller rooms required 10-15 minutes?" (p.303).
The argument is comparing apple with oranges. The figure of 10-15 minutes are estimates from witnesses on gassing times at the Euthanasia facilities in the Altreich. It is not the time after which the gas showed "any effect". In fact, the gassing expert August Becker explained that "you saw the people collapse after about 2 minutes" when carbon monoxide was let in (interrogation of 28 January 1960, BArch B 162/5066, p.39).
In Kalkulierte Morde, the German historian Christian Gerlach proposed to think about a revision of the view that it was Nebe who directly received the order kill the mentally ill people in Minsk - based on the intercepted radio message on von dem Bach-Zewelski calling SK Lange the next day.
One may suppose that a true Revisionist would acknowledge Gerlach's open mind and excitement to revise a piece of Holocaust related history. Too bad Mattogno is just a Holocaust denier, so everything which comes to his mind is sneering and alleging Gerlach's "embarrassment" (p.294). Somebody is projecting. Indeed, it seems like Mattogno is too embarrassed to openly revise false allegations he and his fellows have written in the past.
And frankly, if anything is embarrassing, then it would be somebody who submits the wrong manuscript for publication and then does not even spot the glaring differences upon proof-reading.