Editing Gas van (section)

===Nazi Germany===
Historians of the Holocaust like [[Henry Friedlander]] argue that the mobile gas chambers were invented in Germany in 1940, and they were first used to murder patients of Wartheland hospitals.<ref>[[Henry Friedlander]]. ''The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-8078-2208-1}}, p. 139.</ref> Katrin Reichelt names [[Albert Widmann]] and [[Arthur Nebe]] as having developed the method. The vans themselves were modified by [[Walter Rauff]], {{ill|Friedrich Pradel|de}} and [[Harry Wentritt]].<ref>Katrin Reichelt. "Gaswagen". In: ''Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. vol. 4, ed. by Wolfgang Benz. Berlin: DeGruyter, p. 143&nbsp;f.</ref> Mathias Beer calls gas vans "a special product of the Third Reich".{{sfn|Beer|1987|p=403}}

The use of gas vans by Germans to kill Jews, Poles, Romani people, the mentally ill people, and prisoners in occupied territories during [[World War II]] originated with ''[[Aktion T4]]'' in 1939. Ordered to find a suitable method to kill, the ''Technical Institute for the Detection of Crime'' ("Kriminaltechnisches Institut der Sicherheitspolizei" ([[:de:Kriminaltechnisches Institut der Sicherheitspolizei|de]]), abbreviated KTI) of the [[Reichssicherheitshauptamt]] (RSHA) decided to gas victims with [[carbon monoxide]].{{sfn|Beer|1987|p=405}}

In October 1939, the Nazis started gassing prisoners at [[Fort VII]] near [[Poznań|Posen]]. The first victims were Polish and Jewish inmates of asylums for the mentally ill.{{sfn|Alberti|2006|p=326-327}} Witnesses report that from December 1939, mobile gas chambers were used to murder the inmates of asylums in [[Pomerania]], Eastern Prussia and Poland.{{sfn|Beer|1987|p=405-406}} The vans were built for the [[Herbert Lange|''Sonderkommando'' Lange]] and their use was supposed to speed up the killings. Instead of transporting the victims to the gas chambers, the gas chambers were transported to the victims. They were most likely devised by specialists from the Referat II D of the RSHA. These mobile gas chambers worked on the same principles as the stationary gas chambers: through a rubber hose the driver released pure CO from steel cylinders into the air-tight special construction that was shaped like a box and placed on the carrier. The vans resembled moving vans or delivery lorries and were labelled ''[[Kaiser's Kaffee Geschäft]]'' ([[:de:Kaiser’s Tengelmann#Kaiser’s vor 1971|de]]) ("Kaiser's Coffee Shop") for camouflage. They were not called "gas vans" at the time, but "Sonder-Wagen", "Spezialwagen" (special vans) and "Entlausungswagen" (delousing vans).{{sfn|Alberti|2006|p=327-328}}{{sfn|Beer|1987|p=405-406}} The Lange commando killed patients in numerous hospitals in the [[Wartheland]] in 1940. They drove to the hospitals, collected patients, loaded them into the vans and gassed them while they were driving them away.{{sfn|Friedlander|1997|p=139}} From 21 May to 8 June 1940 the Sonderkommando Lange murdered 1558 sick people from [[Soldau concentration camp]].{{sfn|Beer|1987|p=406}}

In August 1941, SS chief [[Heinrich Himmler]] attended a demonstration of a mass-shooting of Jews in [[Minsk]] that was arranged by [[Arthur Nebe]], after which he vomited. Regaining his composure, Himmler decided that alternative murder techniques should be found.<ref>Longerich, Peter (2012). ''Heinrich Himmler: A Life'', p. 547, {{ISBN|978-0-19-959232-6}}.</ref> He ordered Nebe to explore more "convenient" ways of killing, less stressful for the killers. Nebe decided to conduct his experiments by murdering Soviet mental patients, first with explosives near Minsk, and then with automobile exhaust at [[Mogilev]].<ref>Lewy, Guenter (2000). ''The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies'', pp. 204–208, {{ISBN|0-19-512556-8}}.</ref> Nebe's experiments led to the development of the gas van.<ref name="Browning/essays">[https://books.google.com/books?id=L1O2ZvS29DYC&dq=gas+van+nebe+invent&pg=PA117 The path to genocide: essays on launching the final solution By Christopher R. Browning]</ref> This vehicle had already been used in 1940 for the gassing of East Prussian and Pomeranian mental patients in the Soldau concentration camp.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hilberg |first1=Raul |title=The Destruction of the European Jews |date=1 January 2003 | orig-year = 1961 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09592-0 |page=960 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HinIpmliz2MC |language=en}}</ref>

Gas vans were used, particularly at the [[Chełmno extermination camp]], until [[gas chamber]]s were developed as a more efficient method for murdering large numbers of people. Two types of gas vans were used by the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' in the East. The ''[[Opel]]-Blitz'', which weighed 3.5 tons, and the larger ''[[Saurer]]wagen'', which weighed 7 tons.<ref name="Klee-Dressen-Riess">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACWKeRF49UYC&q=%22gas-vans+in+operation%3A+the+Opel-Blitz%22+%22Saurerwagen%22&pg=PA69 | title=The gas-vans (3. 'A new and better method of killing had to be found') | publisher=Konecky Konecky | work=The Good Old Days: The Holocaust As Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders | date=1991 | access-date=2013-05-08 | author=Ernst. Klee, Willi Dressen, Volker Riess | page=69 | isbn=1568521332}}</ref> In Belgrade, the gas van was known as "Dušegupka" and in the occupied parts of the USSR similarly as "душегубка" (''dushegubka'', literally ''"soul killer"'' or ''"exterminator"''). The SS used the euphemisms ''Sonderwagen'', ''Spezialwagen'' or ''S-Wagen'' ("special vehicle") for the vans.<ref name="Montague-206a">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02ABWyc_Ks0C&q=%22a+gas+van+broken+down+on+the+highway%22&pg=PA206 | title=The Gas Vans (Appendix I) | publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press | work=Chełmno and the Holocaust: The History of Hitler's First Death Camp | year=2012 | access-date=2018-09-15 | author=Patrick Montague | page=Appendix I: The Gas Van | isbn=978-0807835272}}</ref> The gas vans were specifically designed to direct deadly exhaust fumes via metal pipes into the airtight cargo compartments, where the intended victims had been forcibly stuffed to capacity. When the gas was released, victims screamed and knocked on the walls, begging for the Germans to release them.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005 |title=Testimonies of SS-Men Regarding Gassing Vans |url=https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/RESOURCE/DOCUMENT/DOCGAST.HTM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929121811/https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/RESOURCE/DOCUMENT/DOCGAST.HTM |archive-date=29 September 2023 |website=Florida Center for Instructional Technology}}</ref> After their deaths, their bodies were "thrown out blue, wet with sweat and urine, the legs covered with excrement and menstrual blood". These gruesome symptoms were one of the reasons why [[Rudolf Höss]] chose [[Zyklon B]] as the primary killing method for Jews. Ironically, Zyklon B inflicted similar symptoms.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Nestar |chapter=The Nazi's Pursuit for a "Humane" Method of Killing |date=2018 |title=Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 2 |journal=Understanding Willing Participants |volume=2 |pages=241–276 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-97999-1_8 |isbn=978-3-319-97998-4 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 

By June 1942 the main producer of gas vans, {{ill|Gaubschat Fahrzeugwerke|de}} GmbH, had delivered 20 gas vans in two models (for 30–50 and 70–100 individuals) to Einsatzgruppen, out of 30 that were ordered from that company.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} 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 who had been involved in the murder of civilians in [[Krasnodar]]. A group of 30 to 60 civilians were gassed on August 21 and 22, 1942 by members of [[Sonderkommando]] (special unit) 10a of [[Einsatzgruppe]] D, who were supported by local collaborators. Subsequently, gas vans were used for murder of Roma people and ill persons.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.memorialmuseums.org/eng/denkmaeler/view/787/Memorial-to-the-victims-of-fascism-in-Kranodar | title=Krasnodar Gas Wagon Attacks, from memorialmuseums.org, in English | date=2018 | access-date=2020-05-31}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2022}} The total number of gas van killings is unknown.<ref name=":0" />

The gas vans are extensively discussed in some of the interviews in [[Claude Lanzmann]]'s film ''[[Shoah (film)|Shoah]]''.<ref>{{cite web|author = Karolina Kwaśna, Magda Heydel |title = "Why don't you tell them..." Unheard voices in Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah* |url = https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/147098/kwasna_heydel_mrzyglodzka_why_don%27t_you_tell_them_2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |newspaper = Przekładaniec |volume = |page = 37 |date = 2019 |publisher = [[Wydział Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego]] |place = Kraków |doi = 10.4467/16891864ePC.19.010.11385 |language = en}}</ref> This 2011 feature film depicts the murder of Czech children in a gas van (=dušegubka – soul-killer).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Lidice-2011-497424|title= Lidice|publisher=[[Filmweb]]|author= Claude Lanzmann |place=Warsaw|language=pl|date=2011|accessdate=29 March 2025}}</ref>