Diesel Gas Chambers Ideal for Torture — Absurd for
Murder
Friedrich Paul Berg
1. Diesel Exhaust and Zyklon B
Most Nazi gassings were supposedly committed with Diesel
exhaust rather than cyanide or Zyklon B. Although this is contrary to
popular perceptions about the Holocaust story, Diesel exhaust has been
dominant, at least in terms of numbers of victims, in the claims of
holocaust scholars since the 1960's. The Diesel allegations did, however,
gain some public notoriety with the prosecution of American citizen John
Demjanjuk. Demjanjuk was accused of having murdered at least 875,000 Jews
with Diesel exhaust at the alleged extermination camp at Treblinka in
1942/43.[1] A nationally syndicated essay from one of America's
best-known newspaper columnists Patrick Buchanan raised the subject of
Diesel gassing to a fever pitch in the American press. Buchanan, a former
assistant to President Ronald Reagan, claimed that Diesel engines could
not kill at all.[2] His sweeping statement, which was far too broad,
brought him massive criticism but not for any valid technical reasons.[3]
In 1992, a working draft paper authored by Walter Lüftl,
President of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Engineers, described mass
murder with Diesel exhaust as a "sheer impossibility."[4] Shortly
thereafter, he substantiated his view as to the relative harmlessness of
Diesel exhaust in an essay,[5] which was
publicly attacked as well.[6]
For readers familiar with auto emission issues, much of
what follows represents a kind of 'overkill' and rightly so. But in order
to put the Holocaust monster to its final, well-deserved rest – at least
its Diesel portion – one must be rigorous and even exhaustive. Since
Diesel gassings are not technically impossible, we must actually show how
it could have been done hypothetically, and then, just how thoroughly
unreasonable it is to believe the National Socialists would have ever used
the necessary technology.
In any event, all of the anti-Nazi gassing claims are
rubbish; Nazi gassings never happened!
2. Introduction
In any trial of even the most ordinary murder, one can
expect an abundance of information about the murder weapon. One would
expect the Allied and German post-war trials about murder as novel and as
bestially spectacular as the mass murder of millions of Jews in gas
chambers to provide the most extensive and precise documentation possible.
Although there is a vast literature based primarilyon those trials, as far
as the actual mechanics of the extermination process are concerned, all
one really finds is an occasional short and vague description.
Nearly sixty years have elapsed since the end of World
War Two. The Holocaust specialists have had more than enough time to
examine documents and alleged mass murder sites as well as testimony from
the most extensive trials in the entire history of the world. Throughout
this period they have been extremely active – but aside from a few bits
and pieces of so-called 'confessions' and 'eyewitness testimony,' they
have found next to nothing. The vast information gaps about the actual
mechanics of the alleged extermination process should arouse the gravest
suspicion.
Although the information gaps are bad for the
exterminationist position; what is even worse is that the few bits and
pieces of information are simply incredible. To characterize the alleged
mass murder methodology as 'hare-brained,' 'crackpot,' or 'weird' is to
understate the situation. If one looks at the claims critically, sooner or
later it becomes obvious that the people who repeat the Holocaust story in
one form or another simply have no idea as to what they are talking about.
The testimony of so-called 'eyewitnesses' is especially weird. The
statement by Kurt Gerstein, which for a long time was the evidence most
often used by Holocaust specialists, is the best example qualitatively.
The other 'statements' or 'confessions' are even worse.
The absurdities of the various alleged extermination
methods do not in and of themselves prove that the Holocaust did not
happen, but they should at least persuade reasonable people to ask for
some strong corroborating evidence. There are, for example, no autopsy
reports of gassing victims. The 'gas chambers' of Treblinka, Belzec and
Sobibor were all allegedly destroyed before the war ended. Those in
Auschwitz and Majdanek as well as those in the camps in the Reich proper
are ordinary rooms (mortuaries, shower rooms, delousing chambers) that
have been mislabeled 'gas chambers' in spite of their obvious design and
function – often to keep people alive.[7]
To concoct horrible but conveniently vague 'eyewitness'
accounts of mass murder is easy. To have such tales accepted about a
defeated enemy nation after a brutal war, during which the vast media
resources of the victors had already succeeded in portraying the enemy as
thoroughly depraved and wicked, is also easy. On the other hand, it is not
at all easy to explain how one could possibly commit mass murder with
Diesel exhaust. The exterminationists have never provided the necessary
explanation, not even in the great Israeli show trial of Ivan Demjanjuk,
where precisely such an explanation of the Diesel-murder-method should
have been demanded – at least by the defense.
3. The Exterminationist Position
Table 1 is from The Destruction of the European
Jews by Raul Hilberg and was published in 1961. The table summarizes
the views of practically all generally accepted 'consensus' writers on the
Holocaust story over the last 40 years. The camps listed are the only ones
still regarded as 'extermination' camps.
The fourth column from the left shows that in almost all
of the camps, the killing operation supposedly used carbon monoxide (CO).
In Auschwitz the killing operation supposedly used only hydrogen cyanide
(HCN). Of the five camps where carbon monoxide was supposedly used, the
vast majority of victims are said to have been killed in just three camps:
Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. The carbon monoxide was supposedly
generated by Diesel engines. The number of Jews supposedly killed in
Kulmhof (Chelmno) or Lublin (Majdanek) are small compared to the numbers
for Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. The gas vans supposedly employed in
Russia also used Diesels.
On the basis of generally accepted numbers of victims,
nearly two-thirds of all the alleged Jewish victims of German gas
chambers were supposedly gassed with Diesel exhaust.
Table 1: Characteristics of the Death Camps
According to Raul Hilberg [8] |
Camp |
Location |
Jurisdiction |
Type of Killing Operation |
Number of Victims* |
Kulmhof (Chelmno) |
Wartheland |
Higher SS and Police Leader (Koppe) |
gas vans (CO) |
150,000 |
Belzec |
Lublin district |
SS and Police Leader (Globocnik) |
gas chambers (CO) |
600,000 |
Sobibor |
Lublin district |
SS and Police Leader (Globocnik) |
gas chambers (CO) |
200,000-250,000[9] |
Lublin (Majdanek) |
Lublin district |
WVHA (SS Economic-Administrative Main Office) |
gas chamber (CO, HCN)
shooting |
50,000-200,000[9]
|
Treblinka |
Warsaw
district |
SS and Police Leader |
gas chambers (CO) |
750,000 700,000[9]-1,200,000[10] |
Auschwitz |
Upper Silesia |
WVHA |
gas chambers (HCN) |
one million[11] |
* Updated figures were added here; cf. the
appropriate notes. |
For at least several months in 1939 and 1940, Diesel
engines had supposedly been used in Germany's euthanasia program to kill
Germans who were feebleminded or incurably ill. The experience gained from
this early use of Diesels was allegedly applied later by some of the same
people, such as Reichsamtleiter Viktor Brack and
Kriminalkommissar Christian Wirth, to kill Jews in Treblinka,
Belzec, and Sobibor in eastern Poland. According to Hilberg, it was Wirth
who constructed the "carbon monoxide gas chambers" for the
euthanasia program on the orders of Brack who was "actually in charge
of the [euthanasia] operation." Then in the spring of 1942,
Brack ordered Wirth to Lublin where "Wirth and his crew immediately and
under primitive conditions began to construct chambers into which they
piped carbon monoxide from Diesel motors."[12]
In 1978 and 1979, major American television network NBC
broadcast a four-day television miniseries entitled "Holocaust,"
which was essentially a dramatization of the generally accepted Holocaust
story. There were several references to the use of Diesel engines for mass
murder. In one scene, Dr. Bruno Tesch, who in real life had actually been
a highly qualified chemist and was hanged after the war by the Allies,[13]
explains to Eric Dorf, a totally fictional SS officer administering the
extermination program, that one of the advantages of Zyklon B over carbon
monoxide is that Zyklon B "won't clog machinery – and there's no
apparatus to break down, as in carbon monoxide." In another scene,
Rudolf Höß, the commandant of Auschwitz, is about to start a Diesel engine
when Eric Dorf explains to him that he will not need the Diesel any longer
because he has ordered another substance, Zyklon B.
Reality is rather different from what was suggested in
the NBC miniseries and in some of the literature. The Zyklon B used in
Auschwitz consisted of granules made of gypsum and starch, which certainly
would have instantly clogged machinery and/or shower piping, although the
cyanide gas released from Zyklon-B granules would not clog anything.
Diesel exhaust does not clog machinery easily at all – unless the engine
is making smoke under an extremely heavy. This smoke contains some solid
matter which can, indeed, clog machinery (foul the cylinders), if there is
more smoke than can be blown out with the exhaust. Otherwise, no clogging
of cylinders occurs.
4. Kurt Gerstein
The statement of Kurt Gerstein remains a major
cornerstone of the Holocaust legend. Gerstein was an
Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) in the SS and a mine surveyor by
profession with a graduate degree in engineering. When he surrendered to
the French, he supposedly gave them a prepared statement dated April 26,
1945. He had been elevated to the status of "righteous gentile" by
the Israelis and various Jewish writers for having at least tried to alert
the world to the National Socialist extermination program. As H. Roques
pointed out,[14] six different versions of the Gerstein Statement
have been found to date and published by various researchers often in
grossly distorted and mutilated form.[15] Many
parts of Gerstein's statements range from the fantastically incredible to
the downright impossible. He allegedly committed suicide in a French
prison after having offered himself in vain as an informer to the French.
The trend in recent years has been to dissociate from him as 'witness for
the prosecution'. Nonetheless, his 'statements' are the only ones which
give at least a few technical details about the alleged Diesel gassings.
Raul Hilberg, for example, referred to his 'statement' many times without
actually quoting from it.[16]
The following text is an excerpt from the Gerstein
Statement as given in Harvest of Hate by Léon Poliakov. Aside from
a rather brazen 'error' on the part of Poliakov – namely the claim that
700 to 800 bodies were crowded into 93 square meters (1,000 sqf), instead
of only 25 square meters (269 sqf), which is the way the original document
actually reads – it is probably no worse than any of the other
translations which can be found:[15]
"SS men pushed the men into the chambers. 'Fill
it up', Wirth ordered; 700-800 people in 93 [sic; original claims
25] square meters. The doors closed. …
Then I understood the reason for the 'Heckenholt'
sign. Heckenholt was the driver of the Diesel, whose exhaust was to kill
these poor unfortunates.[17] SS Unterscharführer Heckenholt tried
to start the motor. It wouldn't start! Captain Wirth came up. You
could see he was afraid because I was there to see the disaster. Yes, I
saw everything and waited. My stopwatch clocked it all: 50 minutes, 70
minutes, and the Diesel still would not start! The men were waiting in the
gas chambers. You could hear them weeping 'as though in a
synagogue', said Professor Pfannenstiel, his eyes glued to the window in
the wooden door.[18] Captain Wirth, furious, struck with
his whip the Ukrainian who helped Heckenholt. The Diesel started up after
2 hours and 49 minutes, by my stopwatch. Twenty-five minutes passed. You
could see through the window that many were already dead, for an electric
light illuminated the interior of the room. All were dead after thirty-two
minutes!
Jewish workers on the other side opened the wooden doors.
They had been promised their lives in return for doing this horrible work,
plus a small percentage of the money and valuables collected. The men were
still standing, like columns of stone, with no room to fall or lean. Even
in death you could tell the families, all holding hands. It was difficult
to separate them while emptying the room for the next batch. The bodies
were tossed out, blue,[19] wet with sweat and urine, the legs
smeared with excrement and menstrual blood."
It is physically impossible to crowd 700 to 800 people
into a space of only 25 square meters, i.e., 28 to 32 people per
square meter.[20] According to Gerstein, it was not a peephole
through which Professor Pfannenstiel supposedly looked into the gas
chamber – it was a window in a wooden door, and not a gas-tight,
panic-proof steel door as one might expect. Supposedly, there were wooden
doors on two sides of at least one of the gas chambers. We are told that
the intended victims were still alive after almost three hours in the gas
chambers before the Diesel even started, so there must have been many air
leaks into the chambers or else the Jews would have been asphyxiated
without the aid of any Diesel.
There is no mention anywhere of the intended victims
trying to break out. Wooden doors with glass windows would hardly have
withstood a determined group effort to break through. Surely, Prof.
Pfannenstiel, with "his eyes glued to the window," would have
noticed if some people had been trying to smash the glass. But no, we are
told instead that the victims were calm enough and reflective enough to
form groups of family members, and hold hands, and even weep.
More than likely, Dr. W. Pfannenstiel, Professor of
Medicine at Marburg, had been sent to Belzec and other camps as medical
adviser to improve hygiene and health care in the camps. After the war, he
was repeatedly interrogated regarding his visit to Belzec with Gerstein.
He was charged in two cases but never convicted. In the court-room
statements, which are available to us, he never directly disputed
Gerstein's account, but in a private letter he described the Gerstein
Statement as "highly dubious rubbish in which 'fantasy' far outweighs
fact."[21] He also wrote that due to the persecution and
slander to which he was exposed, he did not wish to comment further on the
matter publicly. In other words, Pfannenstiel had clearly tried to avoid
further trouble for himself. The 'whole truth' would have been too much
for his prosecutors to bear.
According to the last sentence of the Gerstein text
quoted above, the bodies of the victims were "blue." Here we have a
major flaw as far as the death-from-carbon-monoxide theory is concerned
because victims of carbon monoxide poisoning are not blue at all. On the
contrary, victims of carbon monoxide poisoning are a distinctive 'cherry
red' or 'pink'.[22] This is clearly spelled out in most toxicology
handbooks and is probably well known to every doctor and to most, if not
all, emergency medical personnel. Carbon monoxide poisoning is actually
very common because of the automobile and accounts for more poison gas
injuries than all other gases combined.
The Gerstein statement, to its credit, does not claim
that carbon monoxide was the lethal ingredient in the Diesel exhaust. It
is the post-war exterminationists who insist that death was due to the
carbon monoxide in the Diesel exhaust. The recurrence of references to
"bluish" corpses in several other examples of so-called 'eyewitness
testimony' from West German trials merely demonstrates the 'copy-cat'
nature of much of that testimony. That such testimony has been accepted by
West German courts specializing in Holocaust-related cases and by the
Holocaust scholars, apparently without any serious challenge, merely
demonstrates the shoddiness of those trials and the pseudo-scholarship
which pervades the subject in general.
If the corpses had indeed appeared "blue," death
certainly would not have been due to carbon monoxide poisoning. A
bluish appearance could, however, have been an indication of death from
asphyxiation, i.e., from lack of oxygen..
According to Léon Poliakov, a French-Jewish historian who
has written at length in support of the Holocaust story,
"… there is little to add to this description
[the Gerstein Statement], which holds good for Treblinka and
Sobibor as well as for the Belzec camp. The latter installations were
constructed in almost the same way and also used the exhaust carbon
monoxide gases from Diesel motors as death agents."
According to Poliakov, more than a million and a half
people were killed with Diesel exhaust.[23]
5. Toxic Effects of Carbon Monoxide
To investigate the Diesel gas chamber claim, the two most
important questions are:
- How much carbon monoxide is actually needed to kill a human being in
half an hour?
- Does Diesel exhaust ever contain that much carbon monoxide?
Carbon monoxide poisoning has been thoroughly studied
since about 1920 when it was carefully examined to determine the
ventilation requirements of tunnels for motor vehicles, particularly for
the Holland Tunnel in New York City. Since the early 1940s, it has been
widely accepted on the basis of the research of Yandell Henderson and J.
S. Haldane that given a normal oxygen content of the air, an
average carbon monoxide concentration of "0.4% and above," as shown
on the last line of Table 2, is needed to kill people in "less"
than one hour of continuous exposure.[24]
Concentrations of 0.15%/vol. to 0.20%/vol. are "dangerous," which
means they might kill some people in one hour, especially if those people
have, for example, weak hearts. But, to commit mass murder in a gas
chamber one would need a concentration sufficient to kill not merely a
portion of any given group of people but rather, sufficient to kill
all. The prospect of 'survivors' of a gassing being 'regassed'
later on or disposed of in some other way is too ridiculous.
The vagueness introduced by Henderson's use of the term
"less" is unfortunate. It arises from the fact that although
Henderson and others could test for non-lethal effects in a laboratory
with a high degree of accuracy, the lethal effects could not be tested in
the same way. The lethal effects and the corresponding CO levels were
determined by careful extrapolation of carboxy-hemoglobin levels over time
from non-lethal tests on humans as well as from some lethal tests on
animals. Although the concentrations given for lethal effects are not as
precise as one might wish, they are still sufficiently accurate to support
some important conclusions about Diesel gas chambers.
According to the exterminationists, the gassing was
always done in about half an hour or less.[25]
To determine the carbon monoxide concentration needed to
kill in only half an hour instead of a full hour, one can use a widely
accepted rule of thumb known as "Henderson's Rule," which is:
%/vol. CO × exposure time = Constant for any given toxic
effect.
In other words, for any given toxic effect, the poisonous
concentration must be inversely proportional to the time of exposure. This
means that to kill in half an hour, one needs twice the concentration that
one would need to kill in a full hour. Applying this rule to the '0.4% and
above' needed to kill in "less than 1 hour," we get 0.8%/vol. as
the minimum concentration needed to kill in less than half an hour.[26]
Table 2: Toxic Effects of Carbon
Monoxide [27] |
Parts of carbon monoxide per million
parts of air |
Carbon monoxide in
%/vol. |
Physiological
effects |
100 |
(0.01) |
Allowable concentration for an exposure of several
hours |
400 to 500 |
(0.04 – 0.05) |
Inhalation for up to 1 hour without appreciable
effect |
600 to 700 |
(0.06 – 0.07) |
Appreciable effect after exposure of 1
hour |
1,000 to 1,200 |
(0.10 – 0.12) |
Indisposition but no dangerous effects after
exposure of 1 hour |
1,500 to 2,000 |
(0.15 – 0.2) |
Dangerous concentrations for exposure of 1
hour |
4,000 and above |
(0.4 and above) |
Fatal in exposure of less than 1
hour |
Applying the same rule to the 0.15 to 0.20%/vol. range,
which is "dangerous" for one hour of exposure, we get 0.3%/vol. to
0.4%/vol. as the range of CO concentration, which is dangerous for half an
hour of exposure.
What all this means is that to have any kind of practical
gas chamber using carbon monoxide as the lethal agent, one needs an
average concentration of at least 0.4%/vol. carbon monoxide – but,
possibly as much as 0.8%/vol. We should keep '0.4% to 0.8%' in mind as
benchmark numbers to which we will refer shortly. Please note that these
data hold true only in the presence of a normal oxygen content of
the air!
|
|
Graph 1: Toxic effect of small amounts of carbon monoxide.[28] Top: original chart; left: additional
values extrapolated by the author. (Click to enlarge)
|
|
Graph 2:
100 cases of CO poisoning,
HbCO versus age. (Click to enlarge) |
If one were to reduce the oxygen content by half for
example – from the normal 21%/vol. to only 10.5%/vol. – any given
concentration of CO will be twice as toxic. Even a CO concentration of
only 0.2%/vol. would then suffice to kill in one hour. So, in order to
determine the actual effectiveness of a given concentration of CO, it is
necessary to see it in relation to the actual oxygen concentration
present. To properly use the values shown in our tables and graphs, one
must determine the CO content that would have the same effect with a
normal oxygen level as the actual CO content with reduced oxygen. This
concentration, which we shall call the "effective
CO-concentration," or c(COeff), is determined by
multiplying the actual CO-concentration, or (c(CO)), by the ratio of the
normal oxygen content (21%) to the actual oxygen content (x%):
c(COeff) = c(CO) × |
x% |
21% |
Another important consideration is always the average
concentration over the entire time of exposure, and not some quantity
of poison measured in pounds or cubic feet. In our current discussion,
this is a problem, since to determine the concentration one would like to
know the volume of the gas chamber which is not really possible here due
to the general lack of information. Neither is it possible to solve this
problem by determining an absolute quantity of poison instead of a
concentration value. The few data regarding gas chamber size, which we do
have for example from the Gerstein Statement, are so unbelievable that
there is no point in trying to work from them. But we do know that the
average CO concentration will always be less than the CO concentration
measured directly on the exhaust side of the Diesel engine.
Table 3 shows the Hb× CO levels
of carbon monoxide victims from the 1950s. In the literature of
toxicology, 60% Hb× CO is generally cited as the
fatal level (cf. Graph 1). According to Table 3, more than 1/4 of all
people would be dead at this concentration. Almost another 50% die at
levels up to 70% Hb× CO, and the last quarter
would die only when the concentration had increased to 80% Hb× CO (see also the scattergram Graph 2). So, to build
an effective CO execution gas chamber which, in keeping with eyewitness
testimony, kills everyone within half an hour – even young, healthy people
with good nerves – the chamber would have to reliably induce a level of
80% Hb× CO. An average CO content of 0.4% by
volume in the gas chamber air would be the absolute minimum required (cf.
Graph 1).
Graph 1 gives the symptoms from various low-level carbon
monoxide exposures as a function of duration of exposure. The highest CO
concentration discussed is 600 ppm (parts per million). 600 ppm is another
way of saying 0.06%/vol. The chart shows that after one hour of exposure
to an average concentration of 600 ppm of CO, one would experience a
headache, but not a throbbing one. Even after 100 hours of exposure, the
worst that one would experience would be unconsciousness, but not death.
However, after only half an hour of exposure to 600 ppm, no symptoms are
indicated at all – not even a mild headache. We should keep '0.06%' in
mind as another benchmark number to which we will refer later in this
chapter.
Table 3:
Hemoglobin-Carbon Monoxide Level of CO-Victims[29] |
|
Age of Victims
[years] |
Hb × CO
[%] |
18-30 |
30-40 |
40-50 |
50-60 |
60-70 |
70-80 |
80-90 |
Sum |
40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 |
- 2 7 5 |
- - 2 2 |
- 1 6 5 |
- 3 12 7 |
- 1 10 8 |
7 5 8 - |
4 5 - - |
11 17 45 27 |
Total: |
14 |
4 |
12 |
22 |
19 |
20 |
9 |
100 |
To obtain more reliable data about the effects of a
higher CO content in exhaust than those extrapolated here, one can consult
accident and suicide statistics. Accident or suicide victims who died from
carbon monoxide are frequently tested for the carboxy-hemoglobin (Hb× CO)[30] concentration in their blood.
What any would-be National Socialist mass murderers
needed to achieve with their gas chambers is called by toxicologists the
"LD100," the lethal dose for killing 100%
of the victims. The concrete implications of this can be seen from the
statistical analysis of a study of 100 deaths from carbon monoxide
poisoning.
6. The Diesel Engine
6.1. Introduction
Although information as to engine type and size might be
considered essential in the investigation of any ordinary murder, such
details are just too much to expect when one is dealing with the Holocaust
hoax. Without more specific information, we must investigate the broader
and far more difficult question of whether or not any Diesel ever built
could possibly have done the abominable deed. The most frequent claim,
however, is that the engines were Diesels from Soviet tanks.[31]
If Gerstein had claimed that the carbon monoxide was
generated by gasoline engines, his story would be more credible. Gasoline
engines can indeed kill rather easily and with little or no warning
because their exhaust is almost odorless. Although Diesel engines look
like gasoline engines, at least to most people, they are actually quite
different. Any mining engineer or mine surveyor, such as Gerstein was,
should certainly have been able to easily distinguish between the two
types of engines. For one thing, the sound of Diesels is so distinctive
that almost anyone can with a little experience recognize them with his
eyes closed.
When Diesels are running, they actually warn us of their
presence: their exhaust smells terrible. In other words, every Diesel
engine comes with its own built-in 'warning ingredient.' The intensity of
the smell or stench has, no doubt, given rise to the thoroughly false
impression that Diesel exhaust must, therefore, be very harmful. The
simple-minded but false logic which guides Holocaust believers is that,
since gasoline engine exhaust can certainly kill, even though it has
little odor, Diesel exhaust, which has an intense odor, must be extremely
deadly. The fact is, however, that there is absolutely no relationship
between smell and toxicity since the most lethal ingredient by far is CO
which is totally odorless. Although Diesel exhaust is not totally
harmless, it is one of the least harmful pollutants anywhere except for
some possible long-term carcinogenic effects, which are totally irrelevant
for any gas chamber for mass murder.
Diesel emissions have until recently been well within the
air emission standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency without
any modifications or accessories.[32]
However, concerns over cancer from Diesel exhaust have made the issue
quite complicated in recent years, but those concerns are only for
long-term effects. In any event, Diesels have always produced far less
than 1%/vol. carbon monoxide, which is still the CO standard for all
internal combustion engines. Gasoline engines have only met the same
standard after many years of intensive research and the addition of many
engine modifications and complex accessories including catalytic
converters.
|
Graph 3: Comparison of carbon monoxide emissions from Diesel and
internal combustion engines.[33]
(Click to enlarge) |
Graph 3 compares carbon monoxide emissions from Diesel
and gasoline engines. The latter are also called spark ignition engines
because they use spark plugs. Clearly the logical choice between the two
types of engines as a source of carbon monoxide would always have been the
gasoline engine. From spark ignition or gasoline engines, one can easily
get 7%/vol. carbon monoxide – and with maladjustment of the carburetor, as
much as 12%/vol carbon monoxide – but from Diesel engines one can never
get so much as 12%/vol. with liquid fuels, except
during overloading.
Carbon monoxide emissions from internal combustion
engines are commonly plotted as functions of air/fuel ratio or fuel/air
ratio. Fuel/air ratio is merely the reciprocal of air/fuel ratio.[34] It has
generally been accepted by the automotive experts that the CO level of
Diesel exhaust is related chiefly to these ratios and not to other
factors, such as rpm.
An air/fuel ratio of 100:1, for example, means that for
every pound of fuel burned, 100 pounds of air are drawn into the engine.
However, only about 15 pounds of air can ever react in any way chemically
with each pound of fuel regardless of the air/fuel ratio or even the type
of engine. This means that at an air/fuel ratio of 100:1, there are always
about 85 pounds of air which do not react. These 85 pounds of excess air
are blown out of the engine without undergoing any chemical change at all.
As far as the excess air is concerned, the Diesel engine is nothing more
than an unusual kind of blower or compressor. In addition, there are no
adjustments that one can make on a Diesel to mistune the engine to change
the exhaust emission levels.[35]
Gasoline engines always operate with an air deficit. As a
direct result of this deficit, the combustion process in gasoline engines
can not possibly go to completion; a significant proportion of carbon
monoxide to carbon dioxide will always be formed.
Diesels by contrast always operate with excess air. At
idle, Diesels operate with air/fuel ratios as high as 200:1. At full load,
the air/fuel ratio is still only down to 18:1. Because of the abundance of
air, there is always far greater opportunity for the fuel to burn to
completion, thereby producing hardly any carbon monoxide. What little
carbon monoxide is produced in the cylinders of a Diesel is subsequently
diluted even further by the excess air.
Each cylinder of a Diesel either misfires or fires. If a
cylinder misfires, the fuel will simply be blown out as vapor and produce
no CO at all. When it does fire, the fuel will always burn to near
perfection because of the excess air which is always present.
Maladjustment, or faulty injection timing, or defective valves have no
significant effect on CO levels for the same reason: the excess air reacts
with nearly all of the remaining CO to form carbon dioxide.
As soon as one understands the true differences between
Diesel and gasoline engine combustion, the logical choice as a source of
carbon monoxide will always be the gasoline engine. The Diesel engine is
always an inherently ludicrous choice as a source of carbon
monoxide.
6.2. Divided Chamber Diesels
There are basically two types of Diesel engines: divided
combustion chamber and undivided combustion chamber. The divided chamber
category of Diesel engines is generally subdivided into pre-combustion
chamber designs and turbulent cell designs.
Graph 4 shows a pair of emission curves for Diesels with
divided combustion chambers (Engine A and B).[36] These
curves were the result of exceptionally careful tests made in the early
1940s in the United States by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) to determine
whether or not Diesel engines could operate underground without
endangering miners.[37] The conclusion of the USBM had been, at least until
the 1970's energy crisis, that Diesels could operate underground in
non-coal mines subject to USBM approval of the engines. Today, Diesels are
also widely used in U.S. coal mines. The earlier exclusion of Diesels from
US coal mines had nothing whatever to do with health and safety
considerations, but job security for coal miners and the political
persuasiveness and eloquence of John L. Lewis, the charismatic president
of the miners' union who had insisted: "no Diesels in UMWA
mines."[38]
The lower curve in Graph 4 is for a pre-combustion
chamber Diesel (Engine A). The upper curve is for a turbulent cell Diesel
(Engine B). The lowest fuel/air ratio always corresponds approximately to
idle and a 'no-load' condition. At idle, neither of these types of Diesels
could produce enough carbon monoxide to even give a headache after half an
hour of continuous exposure.
As one starts to impose loads on these engines, and in
effect increases the fuel/air ratios, the carbon monoxide levels actually
decrease at first. Only as one approaches full load, represented by the
solid heavy line in the figure, do the carbon monoxide levels rise
significantly to a maximum of 0.1%/vol. at a fuel/air ratio of 0.055. The
solid vertical line represents the safe maximum set by engine
manufacturers.
6.3. Undivided Chamber Diesels
|
Graph 4: CO emissions from two different types
of Diesel engine: a precombustion chamber Diesel (A), a
turbulent cell Diesel engine (B).[37]
(Click to enlarge)
|
|
Graph 5: CO emissions from an undivided chamber
Diesel engine (C)[39]
(Click to enlarge) |
|
Graph 6: Composition of the exhaust from combustion
engines.[41] The heavy vertical line marking a fuel/air
ratio of 0.055 (air/fuel ratio 18:1) has been added by the author.
(Click to enlarge) |
The emission curve in Graph 5 (Engine C) shows that an
undivided chamber Diesel still produces only about 0.03%/vol. carbon
monoxide at idle, which is not enough to cause a headache in half an
hour.[39] However, as increasing loads are imposed on such an
engine, the carbon monoxide levels do eventually rise rather sharply. At
full load, represented by the heavy vertical line, the carbon monoxide
level is indeed at about 0.4%/vol. In other words, here we have a Diesel
which looks as if it could have been used to commit mass murder in half an
hour.
The problem for this engine, and for all Diesels, is that
to operate at full load continuously for long periods, such as half
an hour, one risks fouling and damage from accumulated solids inside the
cylinders. If one operates at lower and safer fuel/air ratios than 0.055
(air/fuel ratio 18:1), that is with lower loads, the carbon monoxide
emission levels drop very dramatically. For example, at 80% of full load,
which is generally regarded as the safe maximum for continuous operation
and which occurs at a fuel/air ratio of about 0.045 (air/fuel ratio @ 22:1), the carbon monoxide level is only 0.13%.
That the emission curves in Graphs 4 and 5 are indeed
typical of all Diesel engines over the last sixty years is attested to by
the fact that these particular curves have been referred to in countless
journals and books on Diesel emissions. In other words, there are no
better examples of Diesel emissions. To be sure, there are many other test
results in reputable automotive engineering journals such as the
Society of Automotive Engineers Transactions. But if one takes the
trouble to look through the SAE Transactions of the last sixty
years as well as through other journals, one will not find any examples of
worse carbon monoxide emissions than the curve in Graph 5 for engine C.
Our analysis of engine C represents the worst case that anyone is likely
to find anywhere, for any Diesel engine.[40]
6.4. Fuel/Air Ratios, Load, and the Internal Speed
Governor
One might think that all one has to do to get a high
fuel/air ratio is to press the fuel pedal to the floor – without any
external load being coupled to the engine. What happens then, as the fuel
pedal is simply pressed 'to the metal,' is that the fuel/air ratio will
indeed go to the maximum that the fuel injection stop setting will allow
and, because of that, the engine speed will rapidly increase as well.
Within a few seconds, the engine speed will approach the maximum safe
engine speed set by the manufacturer. Long before that speed is reached,
however, an internal speed governor in the fuel injection pump assembly
will restrict the fuel supply – and quite severely – to protect the engine
by ensuring that the maximum safe engine speed or 'redline' speed is never
exceeded. The actual fuel/air ratio at 'high speed idle' will stabilize
after a few seconds, since there is no load, to nearly the exact same low
fuel /air ratio as at 'low speed idle.' At high speed idle, more fuel will
be consumed per second, but because more air is also being drawn into the
engine, the fuel/air ratio will remain nearly the same as at low speed
idle. In other words, pushing 'to the metal' without an external load will
not raise the fuel/air ratio, except initially.
To actually maintain a high fuel/air ratio for more than
just a few seconds, either of two methods, or a combination thereof, is
essential. One method involves coupling a load, such as a pump, fan, or
generator to the engine to hold the engine speed safely below the
'redline' speed. Another method is by 'choking,' which means restricting
the air supply to the engine.
As a practical matter, coupling an external load to an
engine in a typical truck or tank is far from easy. Nothing like it is
even remotely suggested in any of the anecdotes or documents anywhere in
the Holocaust literature. This method will be investigated more closely in
section 8.1.
Reducing the air intake, however, is quite easy, but
experiments have shown that this method still does not meet the necessary
requirements, see section 8.2.
7. Toxicology of Diesel Exhaust
7.1. Effect of Reduced Oxygen Content
Is it possible that the Jews died from reduced oxygen in
the Diesel exhaust? Such a theory would at least be consistent with the
claim that the corpses were "blue." A bluish coloring to certain
parts of a corpse is indeed a symptom of death from lack of oxygen. Normal
air contains 21%/vol. oxygen. In Graph 6 we see that the oxygen
concentration corresponding to idle in the exhaust of any Diesel engine
(divided or undivided chamber), shown at the right in the graph at an
air/fuel ratio of 100:1 (fuel/air ratio 0.01), is 18% which is just a few
percent less than one finds in normal air.[41] At
full load0 (fuel/air ratio 0.055), the oxygen concentration in the exhaust
of any Diesel engine is approximately 4%.
Probably the best discussion of the effects of
reduced oxygen levels, or asphyxia, is provided by Henderson and Haggard,
according to whom an oxygen content of less than 10%/vol. causes loss of
consciousness, and an oxygen content of less than 6%/vol. is fatal.[42]
According to Haldane and Priestley, "air containing less than 9.5 per
cent of oxygen would ordinarily cause disablement within half an
hour."[43] But disablement is still not death!
Clearly, there is no magic number below which death would
automatically occur, or above which life would necessarily continue.
However, for any gas chamber relying upon reduced oxygen as the killing
method, one would have to reduce the oxygen to below 9.5%/vol. and perhaps
even below 6%/vol.
From Graph 6 we see that to reduce the oxygen
concentration in the exhaust to just 9%, any Diesel would have to operate
at a fuel/air ratio of about 0.04, which corresponds to roughly
of full load. To reduce the
oxygen concentration to as low as 6%, a Diesel would have to operate at
close to full load. In other words, any Diesel gas chamber relying on the
reduction of oxygen as a killing method would have to operate at more than
¾ of full load.[44]
From the above it is evident that over most of their
operating ranges, Diesels discharge sufficient oxygen so that one can
literally inhale pure Diesel exhaust and survive. The smell will be
brutally unpleasant, but not harmful. From idle to at least
¾ of full load, Diesel exhaust
contains sufficient oxygen to sustain human life for at least half an
hour.
7.2. Combined Effects of Carbon Monoxide and
Reduced Oxygen
Table 4: Effective
CO-Content of Diesel Exhaust[45] |
Load range |
Fuel/Air (Air/Fuel)
Ratio |
O2 Content
[%/vol.] |
COmaxContent
[%/vol.] |
FO2 |
COeff [%/vol.] at 21%/vol.
O2 |
Full load |
0.055 (18:1) 0.05 (20:1) |
4.0 6.0 |
0.400 0.220 |
5.25 3.50 |
2.100 0.770 |
Heavy load |
0.04 (25:1) 0.0333 (30:1) |
8.8 10.8 |
0.090 0.080 |
2.40 1.94 |
0.220 0.160 |
Partial load |
0.029 (35:1) 0.025 (40:1) |
12.0 13.5 |
0.075 0.070 |
1.75 1.55 |
0.130 0.110 |
Light load |
0.0167 (60:1) |
16.0 |
0.050 |
1.31 |
0.0667 |
Idle |
0.01 (100:1) |
18.0 |
0.060 |
1.17 |
0.070 |
Table 4 shows carbon monoxide levels for various load
ranges of the Diesel with the worst emission values, i.e.,
Engine C from Graph 5. When dividing the actual O2
content in the exhaust by the normal oxygen content in air (21%), one gets
a factor FO2. One can then multiply the
actual CO content by this factor to determine the toxicologically
effective CO content (see section 5). Table 4 shows us that the
desired, high effective CO content that guarantees the death of all the
victims within half an hour (0.4 to 0.8%) can only be attained near
full load.[46]
7.3. Carbon
Dioxide
If Jews were not killed with carbon monoxide or from a
lack of oxygen, could they have died instead from the effects of carbon
dioxide? Carbon dioxide is no more poisonous than ordinary water. Most
toxicology handbooks do not even mention it. When mentioned at all, it is
generally classified as a "non-toxic, simple asphyxiant." There
are, however, occasional accidental fatalities where carbon dioxide is
directly involved. Death in almost all such cases is caused by a lack of
oxygen. The lack of oxygen arises from the fact that the carbon dioxide is
much heavier than oxygen and will, especially in an enclosed space,
displace oxygen in the same way that water will displace air in the lungs
of a drowning man. The actual cause of death in either situation is not
the carbon dioxide or the water, but rather the lack of oxygen in the
blood (suffocation). One symptom of this kind of death is a bluish
appearance of the skin.
Carbon dioxide can be beneficial and therapeutic.[47] It is
commonly used in clinical medicine as a harmless stimulant for
respiration. For this purpose it is supplied under pressure in cylinders
(Carbogen) containing oxygen and 7%/vol. carbon dioxide.[48]
Normally, when a person exhales, the air leaving the lungs contains about
5.5%/vol. carbon dioxide.
Levels of 3%/vol. carbon dioxide are quite tolerable for
exposures lasting several days. For example, in the 1950s the U.S. Navy
experimented with gas mixtures containing 3%/vol. carbon dioxide and
15%/vol. oxygen (25% less oxygen than in normal air), for use in American
submarines with exposures lasting up to several weeks.[49]
For Diesel engines, the carbon dioxide level at or near
idle is only about 2%/vol. and gradually increases to about 12%/vol. at
full load as shown in Graph 6 (page 448). A carbon dioxide level of
12%/vol. may cause cardiac irregularity and may, therefore, be dangerous
for people with weak hearts.[50] In
contrast to Diesels, gasoline engines produce 12%/vol. already at idle. In
general, if enough oxygen is available, a carbon dioxide level even as
high as 12%/vol. is not likely to cause death. It is generally accepted
that only carbon dioxide concentrations greater than 20 to 30%/vol. are
dangerous.[51] However, when the carbon dioxide level is as high
as 12%/vol. in Diesel exhaust, the corresponding oxygen level is
dangerously low.
The principal danger to life from Diesel exhaust arises
not from any secondary components, but strictly from the combined effects
of CO and reduced oxygen.
7.4. Aldehydes, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides and
Hydrocarbons
Other pollutants in Diesel exhaust, besides carbon
monoxide, are primarily aldehydes (OCHR), sulfur dioxide (SO2),
nitrous oxides (NOx, max. 0.1%), and hydrocarbons
(CxHy). The smell or stench for which Diesel engines
are notorious is caused by trace amounts of certain hydrocarbons and
aldehydes which the most modern analytical instruments can barely
identify, let alone measure. The sensitivity of the human nose to these
compounds is, however, extremely high and out of all proportion to the
actual quantities present. Some of the hydrocarbons are considered
carcinogenic and thus represent a potential long-term hazard, but they are
irrelevant to our study.
The sulfur dioxide content of the exhaust, which can be
fairly high for sulfurous fuels, causes irritation of the respiratory
tract, but these irritations cannot become critical within the time frame
at issue here.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), if present in high
concentrations, can cause edema of the lungs after half an hour's
exposure. However, even the worst edema will not kill in half-an-hour, but
only after a delay of about 24 hours.[52]
One-time, brief exposure to lower concentrations of NO2 merely
irritate the lungs and mucous membranes, as do any sulfur oxides
potentially present, so that we need not consider them further. Nitrogen
monoxide (NO), on the other hand, has physiological effects similar to
CO.[53]
Unlike CO, however, its concentrations decrease with decreasing oxygen
concentrations in the combustion process, i.e., with higher load,
and do not attain any levels critical to health.[54]
Furthermore, NO converts rapidly to NO2,[55] so
that the NO concentration enhances the effects of the CO in the exhaust
only imperceptibly.
The peroxide (ozone) forming effects of nitrous oxides
near ground level as well as the carcinogenic components of Diesel exhaust
are the reason Diesel engines have recently also been subjected to special
emission guidelines. They supposedly pose a danger to human respiration.
This is why the studies conducted in Germany of health hazards posed by
Diesel exhaust were almost entirely confined to analyses of the
proportions of smoke solids and non-combusted hydrocarbons.[57]
7.5. Diesel Smoke
Diesels tend to smoke, especially under heavy load. This
is not due to any inherent inefficiency of Diesels. On the contrary,
Diesels are extremely efficient. The smoke is the result of the nature of
Diesel combustion and the heavier fuels which Diesels use compared to
gasoline engines.
|
Graph 7: Liquids and
solids exhausted from engine per hr, and measured smoke.[56]
The heavy vertical line marking a fuel/air ratio of 0.055 (air/fuel
ratio 18:1) has been added by the author. (Click to
enlarge) |
The solid heavy lines in Graphs 4-7 represent the smoke
limit that manufacturers have found necessary to protect their engines
from excessive wear. As a practical matter, a Diesel cannot operate to the
right of the vertical lines in Graphs 4 and 5 (fuel/air ratio of 0.055 =
air/fuel ratio of 18:1) with liquid fuels because the internal
accumulations of smoke solids would destroy the engine within a short time
and would stall the engine.[58] Many manufacturers are more conservative and limit
their engines to fuel/air ratios below 0.050.
Diesel engines can operate safely at fuel/air ratios
above 0.055 (air/fuel ratios below 18:1) only if they are burning a clean,
gaseous fuel. This is the only way to avoid the buildup of solid material
within the cylinders. The data shown to the right of the vertical line
were only gathered because the researchers at the USBM chose to test their
engines for theoretical reasons with gaseous fuel far beyond the normal
(manufacturer recommended), full load settings of the respective
engines.[59] The data for clean, gaseous fuel is irrelevant to
our analysis because if the Germans had had a gaseous fuel for the Diesel
engines – for example, pure CO – they could have sent that gas directly to
the gas chamber. Using a Diesel engine as some kind of intermediate step
would have made no sense; it could only have made the gas far less toxic.
Since carbon monoxide is highly combustible and because of the excess air,
practically all of the carbon monoxide going into the Diesel would have
been consumed.
Diesel smoke contains a liquid phase and a solid phase.
The liquid phase generally gets blown out of the engine with the exhaust
and, therefore, can do no harm to an engine. But if enough solid material
is also produced, and rapidly enough, some of that material will
accumulate in the cylinders where, in just a few minutes, it can severely
damage piston rings and valves and even cause an engine to simply
self-destruct and stop. The amount of solids produced by Diesel engines
increases dramatically just above a fuel/air ratio of 0.055. For this
reason, manufacturers as a rule equip the fuel injection pumps with stops
so that the engines can only operate below 0.055, or even 0.050.
Operating any Diesel engine near the maximum load
recommended, regardless of the particular design or engine type, would
have produced significant amounts of smoke. Smoke is generally also
noticeable immediately after start-up, even at idle or under light load,
when the engine has not yet had time to reach its normal operating
temperature.
Pattle et al. found that an engine running at less
than half load and producing 0.22%/vol. CO also produces extremely
pungent, tear-inducing smoke which, if piped into a gas chamber, would
reduce visibility to a mere foot or so.[58]
It should surprise no one that there is no mention of
smoke from the Diesel – black, white, dense or otherwise – anywhere in the
Gerstein statement or in any of the postwar trial testimony. Can one
really believe Jews locked in gas chambers would have patiently withstood
such torture?
7.6. Noise, Vibration, Stench
The stench of Diesel exhaust is familiar to anyone who
has ever driven a car behind a truck or bus anywhere in the world. That
stench is, in effect, a powerful 'warning ingredient' to the presence of a
Diesel engine – at least until recent years when the addition of catalytic
converters and other equipment reduced the stench substantially.
Ironically, it was the removal of a warning ingredient in Zyklon B in 1944
which some holocaust believers have often cited as 'proof' of a fiendish
National Socialist desire to deceive intended victims. With Diesel
exhaust, a technology to remove its warning ingredient simply did not
exist until many years later – and yet, the National Socialists still
supposedly used Diesels for mass murder instead of, for example, gasoline
engines which have no such warning ingredient. In other words, the
arguments about 'warning ingredients' in connection with the 'Holocaust'
are at least as nonsensical as everything else.
But in addition to smoke and smell, Diesel engines are
notorious also for their intense noise and vibration. One might even say
that the noise and vibration are additional 'warning ingredients.' Because
of their higher compression ratios, lower rpm's, and the explosive type of
combustion, the amount of vibration that Diesels produce is substantially
greater than that of any comparably-sized gasoline engine. The noise and
vibration are among the major reasons why Diesels have not generally been
used in automobiles. They are just too noisy for many people to bear.
If the 550 hp, V-12 cylinder Diesel from a typical Soviet
T-34 tank had been mounted on the floor of a small building and run for
half an hour at more than ¾ of
full load (at more than 375 hp), the noise and vibration would have been
at least as noteworthy and as wildly spectacular as the wailing of any
Jews – and yet, there is no mention of any such noise or vibration in the
Gerstein Statement, or in any of the post-war trial testimony.
7.7. Diesels in
Underground Mining – a Brief History
Since tests with lethal emissions on humans are not
possible, accidental human deaths have always been an invaluable,
alternative source of information for toxicologists. Parts of underground
mines can often become totally enclosed just like gas chambers from the
inevitable accidents, especially roof failures, which often occur there.
Gasoline engines have generally been outlawed for underground applications
because of their notorious, toxic exhaust, but the history of Diesels
underground is quite different.
Diesel engines were first used underground in coal mines
in 1928 in Germany, in the Saar region, and quite safely from all this
author has seen in the excellent German literature on this subject,
especially in the German mining journal Glückauf.[60] In
Britain, Diesels were first used underground in Yorkshire in 1939, more
than ten years later, but in the following decades, thousands more were
used throughout Britain.
For the mining industry, where heavy machinery is used in
the most difficult and unnatural circumstances imaginable and where the
industrial accident rate has always been among the highest anywhere, one
might expect many fatal accidents. The British safety record with Diesels,
however, was a stunning surprise to many mining professionals, especially
in the USA, where Diesels were not permitted for underground coal mines
until the 1970's. The British safety record was spelled out in June of
1974 when S. Gilbert of the British National Coal Board wrote the
following in a major British mining journal about their experience going
back 35 years to 1939:[61]
"Although it is accepted that there are potential hazards
arising from the emission of noxious gases in the exhaust gases of Diesel
engines, the degree to which these are controlled in British coal mines
has proved to be very effective.. An examination of ALL safety records has
revealed that no person has suffered any harmful effects either
temporarily or permanently as a direct result of breathing any toxic gas
emitted from any vehicle powered by a Diesel engine."
Another quote from the technical literature summarizes
much of what can be found there. The following is from an American essay
by Dennis S. Lachtman, Director for Health Engineering for the EIMCO
Mining Machinery company in a section subtitled: "NO significant human
hazard seen in over 20 studies."[62]
"A number of studies evaluating human response to
exposure of Diesel have included experience among Diesel bus workers,
Diesel railroad workers, and metal and non-metal miners working with
Diesel production equipment and underground. There are more than 20 human
health studies involving working populations exposed to Diesel exhaust
emissions. As can be seen from a careful review of these studies, NO
SIGNIFICANT health hazards have been associated with exposures to Diesel
exhaust emissions.
More recently, the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) has reported on epidemiological studies it has
performed in underground mines. One of these studies included an
MSHA [63] and NIOSH joint study of the
relationship between the underground environments in 22 metal and
non-metal mines looking at the health of more than 5000 miners. This
comprehensive study focuses on the health effects of both silica dust and
other substances including those found in Diesel exhaust. … The
researchers reported that the data showed an ABSENCE of harmful effects
from Diesel exhaust."
There was not even one injury from Diesel exhaust. No
doubt, there must be some occasional deaths somewhere in the world, but
they are certainly few and far between. This does not prove that Diesels
cannot be used to commit mass murder, but it is all the more reason to
believe that murder with Diesel exhaust is far from easy. The only
evidence of Diesels having ever been used anywhere, anytime for murder in
all of human history is within the 'Holocaust' claims and there the best
evidence by far is the Gerstein statement.
The fact that the general non-toxicity of Diesel exhaust
was rather well known in the pre-WW2 German mining industry and the fact
that Kurt Gerstein had been trained as a mine surveyor with, no doubt,
some practical experience in German mines suggest that his obviously
concocted 'statement' near the end of the war may have been deliberately
constructed around Diesel exhaust so that what would seem at first glance
to be a highly incriminating eyewitness account would eventually, long
after the war, be recognized as worthless.[64]
Every year, thousands of deaths occur worldwide due to
carbon monoxide poisoning from gasoline engines. Suicides in cars from
gasoline engine exhaust are common also and are well documented in public
health reports. The most common deaths from carbon monoxide occur,
however, when people simply park their vehicles and run their car or truck
engines to keep warm in winter – or cool in summer – by means of an
automotive air conditioner. Approximately one thousand accidental deaths
still occur in this way every year in the US alone, even though American
cars are routinely equipped today with catalytic converters and emission
controls. But there are no known deaths in cars or trucks with Diesel
engines! Every night across the world, tens of thousands of truck drivers
sleep in their truck cabs with the Diesel engines running throughout the
night – to keep warm in winter or cool in summer. Although there are
always some exhaust leaks into the van compartment of a truck, there is no
evidence of even one trucker dying, or being injured, in such
circumstances. It never happens. There are no known Diesel suicides
either. Diesel exhaust is inherently safe.
7.8. An Expert Opinion from Israel
A major engineering textbook from 1998, which should
contain just about everything one needs to know about Diesel emissions. is
entitled: Handbook of Air Pollution from Internal Combustion
Engines with the subtitle Pollutant Formation and Control. The
book is co-authored by a dozen of the world's leading experts on
automotive emissions. It should be an excellent source of information on
precisely how one might kill people with Diesel exhaust. But in the entire
550 page book, which is rather typical of all other books one can find on
this subject, there was only one sentence relevant to our subject.[65]
"Although carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are regulated,
they will not be considered here, as the Diesel engine combustion process
by definition inhibits the production of CO."
In other words, the toxic effects from carbon monoxide in
Diesel exhaust, including long-term effects, were just not worth bothering
with as a pollutant of any kind. What is ironic is that the editor is an
Israeli professor of engineering in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at Ben-Gurion University. His name is Eran Sher. Someone
should reach out to him and ask if he believes the National Socialists
murdered people with Diesel exhaust and whether he had ever considered
testifying as an expert in the trial of John Demjanjuk.[66] On
whose side would he have testified?
Surely, if Eran Sher and the Israelis really believe it
happened in National Socialist Germany, then it might happen again.
Surely, we should be concerned that Arab leaders may use their tens of
thousands of Diesel trucks to perpetrate another 'Holocaust.' Surely, the
United Nations arms inspectors who are searching for weapons of mass
destruction in the Middle East will miss the boat if they fail to
investigate Arab Diesels.
8. Diesel Gas Chamber Operation
8.1. Imposing an Engine Load
To impose a substantial load on any engine is far from
easy. For example, if one has an ordinary truck, a full load can be
imposed on the engine by first filling the truck with a heavy cargo and
then racing the vehicle up a steep hill with the fuel pedal to the floor.
Under that condition, one would probably be putting out about 0.4%/vol.
CO, which is indeed lethal, from the exhaust pipe of an undivided chamber
Diesel. However, if the truck is simply parked in a driveway, it is
practically impossible to impose any significant load on the engine.
Merely 'racing' the engine with the transmission in neutral will impose no
more than a few percent of load. Letting the clutch slip and stepping on
the accelerator may impose a somewhat greater load on the engine – but the
clutch will rapidly burn out. Jacking up the rear end of the vehicle and
applying the brakes while racing the engine will impose a somewhat greater
load, but the brake linings will rapidly burn out.[67]
The only way to realistically impose a significant load
on any engine is by coupling to the engine some kind of brake dynamometer
or other load, such as a generator with an electrical load, a fan, pump,
or the like.
Brake dynamometers were available, but, although the
Germans must have had many in engineering testing laboratories, they are
not readily available. They are not the kind of equipment that one finds
in auto repair shops even today. They cost far more than the engines to
which they are attached, since they are not mass-produced – at least not
at that time.
An electric generator arrangement seems possible, since
Treblinka and Belzec would have needed electricity, even if only to keep
the barbed wire charged and the lights burning, and also because in those
days the rural areas of these camps in eastern Poland may not have been
connected to a public power grid. However, such an arrangement suggests a
continuous operation of both the generator and the Diesel engine, which is
contrary to the Gerstein Statement. According to that statement, the
engine had to be started just for the gassing. There is nothing in the
statement to even remotely suggest that the engine served any other
purpose than to kill Jews. If it had had a dual purpose, for example to
also drive an electric generator, one would expect some comment about the
lights going on as the gassings began, but there is nothing of the sort.
In fact, according to the Gerstein statement, Pfannenstiel had "his
eyes glued to the window in the wooden door" before the Diesel
even started which strongly suggests that the "electric light which
illuminated the interior of the room" must have been on before any
gassing even started. In other words, there must have been electricity
from a power source other than the alleged Diesel gassing engine.
Postwar 'eyewitnesses' for Treblinka related trials
actually claimed that the same building where the 'gassing Diesel' was
housed also contained a second engine which operated independently of the
first and which supplied electrical power to the camp.[68] In
other words, these accounts specifically show this generator not to
be related to those engines that allegedly produced poison gas, just as
accounts of the poison gas engines never suggest any other, continuous use
of those engines. On the contrary: accounts describing events as the
engine was supposedly being started are amazingly similar. The command
given to the engine operator to start the engine – "Ivan, water!"
(Treblinka) – or similar events for Belzec ("Heckenholt
Foundation") appear not just in the Gerstein Statement, but run like a
central theme throughout of the eyewitness literature.
From documents of the Central Construction Office of
Auschwitz (Zentralbauleitung), we know that the SS provided this
camp with emergency power equipment consisting of German Diesel engines
rated at 440 hp and electric generators rated at 250 kW.[69]
Witnesses stated explicitly that the power facilities were constantly
running under some load in Treblinka due to the lack of a connection to a
public network and that these engines operated in addition to the
gassing engines which operated only sporadically. Something is obviously
wrong with these 'eyewitness' stories. Anyone with any expertise would
have used the exhaust of the engine driving the generator which was
already operating under load, instead of an additional engine for gassing
purposes without any load. Besides, the exhaust from the engine driving
the generator was already there and available (where else would the
exhaust go except into the sky). To start an extra Diesel with or without
some specially-arranged load is ridiculous.
8.2. An Inhalation Study on Living Animals – Combining all Possible
Effects
Arguably, the analysis of CO and reduced oxygen has until
now been highly theoretical – and yet, it has still not included possible
combinations of effects with all other ingredients in Diesel exhaust. A
theoretical analysis of all such combinations of effects is beyond
analysis. Happily, there is a detailed study of the actual effects of full
strength Diesel exhaust on living animals. It appeared in the British
Journal of industrial Medicine in 1957.[58] To my
knowledge, this is the only study of this type ever undertaken and is the
most important single piece of evidence for the analysis of Diesel
toxicity anywhere.
Eight experiments were performed with undiluted exhaust
from a small Diesel engine
[70] under four different operating conditions – two
essentially identical experiments for each operating condition. Each
experiment was performed on four rabbits, ten guinea-pigs, and forty mice.
The animals were only introduced into the chamber after the Diesel exhaust
concentrations had had approximately half-an-hour to stabilize and purge
the chamber of all other air.
In the two tests under "low" load (Condition A: no
external load, only accessories such as the cooling fan), which was
essentially an "idle" condition, there were no fatalities among any
of the test animals even after five hours of continuous exposure. But even
under Conditions B and C where the engine was under heavy load (with "a
large fan and two hydraulic pumps to provide the load"), the survival
rate was as follows:
- All rabbits survived the five hour exposure and even continued to
live for a week thereafter.
- Of the guinea-pigs, only one died during the actual five-hour
exposure period, although most died over the next seven days.
- Of the mice, only a minority died during the five hour exposure and
most even survived through the following week.
Under Condition D, which was by far the most extreme test
with a severely restricted air intake,[71] a
maximum CO level of 0.22%/vol. was produced with an oxygen concentration
of 11.4%/vol. Although many, but not all, of the mice died within an hour,
all of the rabbits and guinea-pigs survived for more than one hour of
continuous exposure.[72]
For exposures only as long as Gerstein alleged (32
minutes), the survival rates would have certainly been even better. In
other words, on the basis of tests on living animals with full-strength
Diesel exhaust, Gerstein's gas chamber would have been a complete
fiasco.
8.3. Actual Concentrations of Poison Gas in a Gas
Chamber
When the exhaust from a Diesel engine enters a gas
chamber, the carbon monoxide concentration will initially be extremely low
and the oxygen level will be high. As more and more Diesel exhaust fills
the gas chamber, the carbon monoxide concentration will gradually rise to
the same level as one finds directly inside the exhaust pipe of the Diesel
engine – without ever exceeding that level.
It is impossible to determine from the Gerstein Statement
how long it would have taken before the CO concentration in the gas
chamber equaled that in the exhaust because Gerstein does not provide
nearly enough information about the engine or alleged gas chamber in
Belzec.
For Treblinka, the 'eyewitness' statements are somewhat
more detailed, but still contradictory. It is generally alleged that the
larger and more important of the two gas chamber buildings in Treblinka
consisted of 10 chambers, five on each side of a corridor.[73] Each
chamber measured 8 m in length, 4 m in width, and 2 m in
height, totaling 320 m2 in area and a
640 m3 in volume. The chambers were allegedly filled with
the exhaust from only one Russian Diesel tank engine, which could have
only been the 550 hp V12 with a displacement of 38.86 liters.[74] The
total area of 320 m2 could not have held more than 3,200
persons at one time.[75] Given an average body volume of 75 l, these
people would have taken up a space of 240 m,3 leaving
about 400 m3 air volume.
The Russian Diesel tank engines of those days had a
maximum speed of 2,000 rpm.[76] Since a four-stroke engine discharges the contents
of its cylinders only every second revolution, an engine running at
2,000 rpm blows an exhaust volume of one thousand times its cubic capacity
into the chamber per minute, i.e., 38.86 m.3
Therefore, after a little more than ten minutes, enough exhaust would have
been discharged to replace the entire air volume of the gas chambers only
once. The eyewitnesses claim that the gas chambers were sealed
hermetically; in other words, they were air-tight.[68] But
this is impossible, since there must have been some openings for the
excess gas to escape.[77] Also, without many holes and cracks, everyone would
have already died during the "2 hours and 49 minutes" by Gerstein's
stopwatch. However, since some of the Diesel exhaust would have also
escaped through holes or cracks – not just normal air from within the
chamber – and since the intended victims would have also consumed some of
the carbon monoxide, a minimum of two complete air exchanges of the room
volume seem entirely reasonable for filling the chamber entirely with the
exhaust. At 2,000 rpm, therefore, one cannot expect the CO content to have
reached the level of the exhaust itself in less than 20 minutes from the
start of the gassing procedure. If a restricted air intake to the engine
had produced a 0.22%/vol. CO content in the exhaust in the worst case
possible, the average CO concentration would have then approximated
0.11%.[78] The full 0.22%/vol. CO would have been available
for no more than the last twelve minutes of the gassing, which took 32
minutes at most. The 20 minutes with a CO level of 0.11%/vol. and the
additional 12 minutes at 0.22%/vol. CO result in an effective average for
thirty-two minutes of only 0.15%CO/vol. (simply on the basis of
mathematical averaging). At an oxygen content of ca. 11.4%/vol., this
amounts to an effective CO content of 0.28%/vol., which is not enough to
kill all humans within half an hour. In other words, it is well below the
0.4%/vol. of CO that we had identified in Section 5 of this article as the
minimum needed.
In the animal experiment previously described with a real
CO concentration of 0.22%/vol., which was already established before
the test animals were even introduced and which, because of the
reduced oxygen content of 11.4%/vol., corresponded to an effective CO
concentration of (0.22×21÷11.4=) 0.4%/vol., it still took more than three
hours to kill all of the test animals. It is, therefore, perfectly
reasonable and even quite conservative to say that in a similar gassing
attempt with humans and with only a gradually increasing CO concentration,
the majority of people in the alleged gas chamber would still be alive
after one or even two hours. Such a result would have been an utter
fiasco.
8.4. Exhaust Gas Recirculation for Mass
Murder
The remaining question is whether a Diesel gas chamber
might have worked by recirculating the exhaust gas from the engine. This
is actually a well-known problem with Diesel exhaust going back to at
least the 1920's in Germany. The concept is to have the air intake, as
well as exhaust, connected directly to the same gas chamber. The exhaust
then goes around through the engine and the gas chamber, and on back
through the engine, and around again, and again. Eventually, so much
oxygen is consumed and so much carbon monoxide is produced, that together
these changes kill everyone. But, the engine eventually also shuts itself
down when there is no longer enough oxygen to sustain combustion; at that
point, the engine also ceases producing any more carbon monoxide. The
problem is that in order to receive an exhaust gas with a relatively high
content of CO, the engine has to be suffocated to a degree
Carbon monoxide gas is an excellent fuel and actually
burns far more easily than Diesel fuel or even gasoline. As the exhaust
gas recirculates, any additive increase in carbon monoxide levels which
one might at first expect will, in fact, not occur at all so long as there
is still sufficient oxygen to allow the CO to burn in the cylinders. If
the CO level is initially only 0.05% after the first pass through the
engine, one might – wrongly – expect it to double to 0.10% after the
second pass, and then rise to 0.15% after the third pass, and so on, and
on. In reality, however, the carbon monoxide concentration is not at all
accumulative so long as the air to fuel ratio remains above 15:1. Since
the initial fuel/air ratio is probably more than 100:1, there will be no
significant change in CO concentration until several complete exchanges of
gas have occurred and just shortly before the engine shuts down. This is
confirmed by results in a US Bureau of Mines study which also shows that
the CO levels remain low until just shortly before the engine shuts
down.[79]
Whether the engine dies before the intended victims die
is the important question. In order to obtain 0.22%/vol. of CO in the
experiment conducted by Pattle et al., the engine's air intake had
to be so severely restricted that it did misfire during warm-up.[71] This
means that choking the engine even more by reducing the oxygen
concentration from 21%/vol. of normal air down to 11.4%/vol. of
recirculated exhaust gases would have shut down the engine most likely
well before all victims had died. There is no mention in the Gerstein
statement or anywhere else of the engine shutting down. The only reference
to engine problems is that Mr. Heckenholt allegedly needed more than two
hours just to get the engine started, during which time the
survival of the victims would have required many air leaks into the gas
chamber. It seems about as reasonable as anything else to conclude from
the Gerstein statement that the engine ran throughout the 32-minute
gassing period without any problem from lack of oxygen, or for any other
reason. In other words, even the recirculation argument fails to fit any
of the Diesel gas chamber scenarios from Gerstein, or anyone
else.
8.5. The Most Likely
Diesel Arrangement for Mass Murder
Without a thorough understanding of the basic
characteristics of Diesel engines, the simple-minded method that would
have come to mind most readily would have been to simply park a Diesel
truck or a T-34 tank outside the gas chamber building and pipe the exhaust
into the gas chamber without any load on the engine. Such an arrangement
would have annoyed the hell out of any group of intended victims, but
would have given them nothing worse than a headache. The headache would
have been due to the stench, and smoke, and noise, but certainly not to
carbon monoxide and/or lack of oxygen. As a method for mass murder, it
would have been a fiasco.
For any Diesel arrangement to have been even marginally
effective for mass murder, it would have required an exceptionally
well-informed team of individuals to know and do all that was necessary.
They would have had to be familiar with the carbon monoxide and oxygen
emission curves for their particular engine. Such information is probably
not known even today by most engineers. The Diesel gas chamber designers
would also have had to know either 1) how to impose and maintain an
engine load of more than ¾ of
full load on their engine, since anything less would just not have been
enough, or 2) how to combine a restricted air intake with some lesser
degree of engine loading to achieve the same effect. If they had
overloaded the engine or had operated it for too long at or near full load
(more than 80% of full load is generally considered unsafe for continuous
operation), they might after each gassing have had to overhaul and perhaps
replace the engine because of fouling and damage from engine smoke. Merely
to gather and assemble the appropriate equipment, including the equipment
for imposing and controlling an artificial load, would have been a major
undertaking which would have required the expertise of experienced
engineers, not just ordinary auto mechanics. If the engine (550 hp!)
had been mounted on the floor of the building, it would have required a
proper foundation with some provision to isolate vibrations so as to avoid
tearing the building apart.
The all-important question is: if any persons had been
smart enough and resourceful enough to know and do all that was necessary
to make a workable Diesel gas chamber, why would they have bothered with a
Diesel engine in the first place? For all their efforts, they would have
had an average effective concentration of less than 0.4%/vol. carbon
monoxide and more than 4%/vol. oxygen, resulting in execution times of
probably more than two hours. Any common, ordinary gasoline engine without
any special attachments would easily have given them ten times more carbon
monoxide at idle as any comparably-sized Diesel at full load.. Any common,
ordinary gasoline engine would easily have given them 7%/vol. carbon
monoxide and less than 1%/vol. oxygen. If one had fiddled with the
carburetor, one could have had as much as 12%/vol. carbon monoxide by
merely turning one small screw, namely the idle-mixture adjustment screw.
Comparing the two types of engines with both operating at idle or under
light load, the difference is even more dramatic. At idle or under light
load, any common, ordinary gasoline engine without any special attachments
would easily have given more than one hundred times as much carbon
monoxide as any comparably sized Diesel.
The hoax becomes even more obvious when one discovers
that far better sources of carbon monoxide, better even than gasoline
engines, were readily available to the Germans – and required neither
Diesel fuel nor gasoline.
9. Half a Million Poison Gas Generators on Wheels — Never Used
for Mass Murder!
During World War Two, most European countries relied for
most of their non-military automotive transport upon vehicles which used
neither gasoline nor Diesel, but burned solid fuels such as wood, coke, or
coal instead. The solid fuel, which was generally wood, was first
converted into a mixture of combustible gases by burning in a generator,
usually mounted at the rear of the vehicle. The gases were then withdrawn
from the generator by engine suction through a pipe beneath the vehicle,
and then burned in a modified gasoline or Diesel engine located at the
front of the vehicle. The combustible gas produced in this way always
contained between 18%/vol. and 35%/vol. carbon monoxide. The exhaust of
engines operated with this producer gas never contained more than
0.3%/vol. CO, since nearly all of the CO was consumed in the engine.[80]
|
Illustration 1: A typical gaswagon which had originally been a conventional
bus but which was subsequently retro-fitted with a gas-generator and
a Saurer engine.[81] |
In German-speaking parts of Europe, these vehicles were
called Generatorgaswagen, or simply Gaswagen. If they burned
wood, which most of them did, they were also called Holzgaswagen
which translates literally as "woodgaswagons." In English-speaking
countries, these vehicles were generally called "producer gas
vehicles." However, they could just as appropriately have been called
"poison gas vehicles" because that is precisely what they were. The
operation of these vehicles required special safety procedures as well as
special government-approved training and licensing of the many hundreds
of thousands of drivers who drove these vehicles daily throughout
German-occupied Europe.[82]
Every driver of a producer gas vehicle was required to
know and comply with the following guidelines and to keep them at hand in
the vehicle:[83]
"Safety Guidelines for Producer Gas
Vehicles
dated November 28, 1942.
The gas from the gas generator contains up to 35% carbon
monoxide (CO). Carbon monoxide can be fatal at concentrations as low as
0.1% when inhaled. For this reason – especially while starting the fire or
during refilling – there is a danger of poisoning!
Start and refill the gas generator only out-of-doors! Do
not linger unnecessarily near the blower discharge. Do not let engines
run in garages.
Responsibilities of the supervisor and
driver :
All persons who work with producer gas generators are
required to learn and conform to the necessary procedures for a safe and
orderly operation. The manufacturer's operating instructions must be
strictly followed and kept available within the vehicle. Furthermore,
these safety guidelines must also be kept with the vehicle documents for
each producer gas vehicle …" (emphasis as in
original)
|
Illustration 2: Saurer BT 4500 with producer gas generator.[84]
A Saurer truck similar to this type allegedly was used for mass
murder in Kulmhof/Chelmno – not with producer gas, but incredibly
with its exhaust gas.[85] |
|
Illustration 3: Austro-Fiat 4 D 90 A, producer gas generator as standard
fitting.[84] |
|
Illustration 4: Another
German war-time producer gas truck form Saurer (Type 5
BHw) |
Already the first two sentences of these "safety
guidelines" tell every driver the two most important facts they should
know if they wish to commit mass murder. Producer gas is poison gas! All
producer gas vehicles were, in effect, self-propelled gas generators. The
fuel itself was poison gas.
Wherever possible, liquid fuels had to be reserved for
the military, at least for the duration of the war. The interest which
even Adolf Hitler showed is demonstrated by his remarks at an exhibition
of Mercedes-Benz heavy trucks with Mercedes-Benz gas producers that burned
coal:[86]
"Vehicles of this kind will retain their special
significance after the war as well; for given the trend towards increasing
motorization, we will never have a surplus of liquid fuel and will always
be dependent on imports. The additional domestic fuels thus benefit our
own national economy."
By the autumn of 1941, some 150,000 producer gas vehicles
were already in use in Germany and the areas controlled by her. The
conversion of existing trucks to producer gas resulted in a monthly
savings of about 45 million liters of liquid fuel. The goal was "to
free every bit of dispensable fuel for the Wehrmacht."[87] By the
end of the war, more than 500,000 producer gas vehicles had been put into
service by the Germans.[88]
On May 30, 1942, Reichsmarschall Göring
established a "Generator Central Office" for his Four-Year Plan:[89]
"to boost generator production, to determine new types
on the basis of the fuel situation at hand, to develop new solid fuels for
use in the generator, and to develop suitable processes for preparation
and low-temperature carbonization etc."
Göring stated:[90]
"I refer to the explanations in my aforementioned
decree, regarding the urgency of making Germany as well as the occupied
territories and dependent lands largely independent of liquid fuel as
quickly as possible, and would ask you to vigorously support the efforts
of the Central Office through the increased use of
generators."
As the war continued, conversion to solid fuel became
more and more urgent. On September 22, 1942, Reich Minister Speer, acting
in his capacity as plenipotentiary for armament production (GBRüst),
ordered the conversion of all medium and heavy vehicles including buses in
all German-occupied regions.[92] A year
later, the GBRüst's amendment of September 13, 1943, eliminated all
exemptions. Now the conversion of all civilian vehicles was mandatory as
well, including even the smallest automobiles.[93] After
the war, in a long report about German oil production, the U.S. Strategic
Bombing Survey stated that even some of the best German tanks, 50
Königstiger, had been driven with producer gas just before the
war's end.[94]
|
Illustration 5 :
The Imbert-Generator was
the most widespread producer gas generator of the Third Reich, here
in mass production on an assembly line in Cologne
1943.[91] |
The vast numbers of producer gas vehicles as well as the
fervor with which the Germans developed new vehicles and uses for this gas
technology, which is so evident throughout their wartime automotive
literature, undermine the Holocaust story in general. If the Germans had
ever intended to commit mass murder with carbon monoxide, they certainly
would have had enough brains to employ this superb poison gas technology
long before using anything as idiotic as Diesel exhaust. And, it would
have worked!
Eichmann and the other 'transportation experts' involved
in the "final solution of the Jewish question," which was indeed
primarily a transportation problem, would certainly have been fully aware
of these vehicles. If they had had any expertise at all, they would have
also been aware of some of the unique features of these vehicles as well.
For example, each generator had a startup blower which was powered by
either a small electric motor or by hand. It would have been childishly
easy to attach a hose, or pipe, to the exhaust of that blower so as to
force poison gas into any cellar, barracks, or prison, but nowhere in the
vast Holocaust literature is any such technology even suggested.
Another irony is the fact that the same producer gas
technology was actually used to gas rats and other vermin. According to
the public health literature from the Third Reich, producer gas equipment
from the firm of Nocht-Giemsa for killing rats was "very common."[95] And
yet, no one thought of using this obvious, practical, effective, simple,
and cheap technology on humans – even Jews who had sometimes been compared
to rats as in the film "Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew).
Obviously, the National Socialists were not nearly as fiendishly clever,
as exterminationists often claimed they were, in connecting Jews to
rats.
10. Vans with Diesels for Mass Murder?
10.1 Origins of the Diesel Story
The producer gas vehicles are not the same as the "gas
vans" allegedly used for mass murder in Chelmno and by the
Einsatzgruppen in Russia, despite the ironic circumstance that the
words used in German for both kinds of vehicles are similar. According to
all the 'evidence,' the murderous "gas vans" were ordinary heavy
vehicles whose exhaust (most often from a Diesel operating at idle) became
the lethal gas. The gas van story is based primarily on a strange
Nuremberg trial document known as PS-501, which is a probable fabrication
based upon an unavailable, innocuous letter from
SS-Untersturmführer Becker to SS-Obersturmbannführer Walther
Rauff, in which Bekker requested all-wheel-drive vehicles so that he could
more easily travel the muddy Russian roads. The letter suggests
modifications to an S-vehicle.[96] The
text of an unavailable original seems to have been rewritten with several
changes to give it an incriminating significance. There are several
different versions of this 'document' which has been critically assessed
in the present volume by Ingrid Weckert.
|
Illustration 6: German
war-time producergas generator made by
Kromag |
The Diesel murder claims probably originated in mid-1943
Soviet propaganda. A short time earlier, in April 1943, the German
discovery of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers at Katyn had
exposed the Soviets as ruthless mass murderers. The Germans had openly
invited internationally-renowned forensic scientists, even from enemy
countries, to thoroughly examine the victims.[97]
To avenge themselves on the Germans for the debacle of
Katyn, the Soviets staged show trials a few months later in Char'kov and
Krasnodar. In the course of those trials, some unfortunate German
prisoners provided 'confessions.' However, the Soviets denied any and all
non-Soviet experts access to the alleged sites of the massacres. The
Soviets accused the Germans of having driven civilians into the
countryside in Diesel trucks. After the trucks containing the victims were
parked, the Diesel engine exhaust was allegedly redirected into the
interior, and the victims expired shortly thereafter.
|
Illustration 7: Design of an Ostmark producer gas generator. (Click to
enlarge.)[117] |
In this scenario, the Diesel engines would have been
operating without any load and at fast idle at the very worst. The CO
concentrations under such conditions would hardly have caused a headache
in half an hour.
Some of these trucks were said to have been manufactured
by the firm of Saurer.[85] The ironic part of this tale is that even before
the war, Saurer was arguably the manufacturer of the world's best and most
efficient producer gas trucks. During the war, this Swiss-Austrian firm
continued its technical leadership over Mercedes, Opel, and Ford who were
actually manufacturing far more producer gas vehicles.[98] More
than 6,000 Saurer trucks were built in Vienna during the war and most, if
not all, had producer gas generators and Diesel engines. How absurd to
believe anyone with even a minimum of technical understanding would even
try to use the exhaust from these trucks for murder, when the fuel itself
was a thousand times more lethal!
A television series produced during the collapse of the
Soviet Union and aired in the United States in 1993, provided further
insight into the Soviet origins of the gas van tale. The four-part
broadcast was entitled: "Monster: A Portrait of Stalin in Blood."
At one point in the second part, subtitled "Stalin's Secret
Police," KGB officer Alexander Michailov claimed that the gas trucks
were invented in Moscow by Isai Davidovich Berg – no relation to this
author – and were already in use a few years before the war. According to
Michailov, these may have served as a model for Hitler's SS and the
Gestapo. Diesel engines were not mentioned. This is explained by the fact
that all pre-war trucks in the Soviet Union had only gasoline engines.
There were no Diesel engines since the entire transportation system in the
USSR was based on earlier, western engine types such as that of Ford Motor
Co. More than likely, the Soviet allegations of gas trucks are truly based
on the Soviets' own mass murder technology to which they simply added
Diesel engines to make them seem more sinister and, most of all, more
German.
The gas van story is an adaptation of some documentary
materials relating to the perfectly innocent use of producer gas vehicles
– supported, of course, by appropriate 'eyewitness' testimony. It is
within the gas van story, however, that one can see in miniature the
process by which the Holocaust story in general has been confabulated.
The earliest reference to mass murder in gas vans that I
have ever found is from July 1943, when Pravda reported on the show
trials of a number of German prisoners who had supposedly murdered Soviet
citizens in Krasnodar with Diesel powered vans. English translations of
the Pravda stories appeared in The Trial in Britain through
Hutchinson & Co. and Foreign Languages Publishing House where we have
the following text:[99]
"In the autumn of 1942, the Germans began to use
specially equipped automobiles which the population called 'murder vans,'
for the purpose of doing away with Soviet citizens.
These 'murder vans' were covered five-ton or seven-ton
gray-painted motor trucks, driven by Diesel engines."
From a later trial in Kharkov in December of 1943 we have
the following claim:[100]
"The vans are lined inside with galvanized iron and have
airtight folding doors at the back. The floor is equipped with a wooden
grating under which passes a pipe with apertures. The pipe is connected to
the exhaust pipe of the engine. The exhaust gases of the Diesel engine,
containing highly concentrated carbon monoxide, enter the body of the van,
causing rapid poisoning and asphyxiation of the people locked up in the
van."
The simple fact is that Diesel exhaust never contains
"highly concentrated carbon monoxide."
In a later publication entitled "Soviet War
Documents" from December 1943 and published by the Soviet Embassy in
Washington, DC, we have a description of the gas van on page 172.
According to that description, the engine was a "Sauer" engine.
There is no "Sauer" engine manufacturer but there is the famous
company called "Saurer" which was discussed earlier. The connection
that is made here to a company called "Sauer" is significant
because it reappears in the infamous fake letter from Becker
to Rauff in Nuremberg File PS-501.[101] By their common errors one can
recognize the work of the forgers. There is never any mention anywhere of
the engines having been gasoline engines – although that would have
certainly made sense technically – nor is there any mention of producer
gas wagons which would have made all the sense in the world.
10.2. The Vans of Chelmno
The least important of the six supposed extermination
camps, in terms of numbers of victims, is Chelmno. Oddly enough, it is the
Chelmno story that seems to have some persistence even among Holocaust
skeptics. The 'evidence' is especially vague and consists essentially of
anecdotes, many describing events long after September 13, 1943, when all
use of liquid fuels (gasoline or Diesel fuel) for non-military vehicles
was strictly prohibited and when producer gas was required as the only
alternate fuel. The anecdotes invariably allege that the driver, just
prior to departure with a batch of entrapped victims, would work on
something or other (always totally undefined as to what and how) beneath
the vehicle to redirect the exhaust from the engine (Diesel or gasoline –
take your pick) into the van compartment to kill the victims. For producer
gas vehicles, a lengthy startup procedure (half-an-hour seems to have been
common) involving many adjustments to the gas generator and piping below
the vehicle was, indeed, always necessary, but this was not the case for
vehicles using liquid fuels. More than likely, some 'witnesses' had
actually seen a producer gas startup procedure and then, after the war,
embellished that true experience to make something atrocious. But what
argues most strongly against all such stories is that the use of trucks
(medium and heavy) using any kind of liquid fuel had already been
prohibited a year earlier by Speer on September 22, 1942; smaller vehicles
were still exempt until a year later (see section 9). To break the law for
a few per cent of CO from gasoline engine exhaust – or even only a
fraction of a percent from Diesel engine exhaust – when the legally
required fuel was far more lethal, is too ridiculous. It never
happened!.
10.3. Accidental Gassings from Producer Gas
Vehicles
Producer gas is poison gas – extremely poisonous with CO
concentrations as high as 35%. Although there is no credible evidence of
any deliberate gassings with producer gas vans, there were no doubt many
fatal, accidental gassings. These arose almost inevitably from the nature
of the half million producer gas vans which made their own CO. Fatal
accidents were inevitable from the earliest uses of these vehicles and, no
doubt, became more frequent as the war made it more difficult to properly
train drivers. However, this author has found no actual record of any such
accidents in the German wartime literature. The severe dangers of
accidental poisonings and explosions are, however, clearly spelled out in
the German literature including the safety guidelines.
It is in the post-war literature of Scandinavia that one
can, however, find the most startling detailed information as to the many
medical problems arising from producer vehicles. Poisonings from producer
gas were so common in Sweden, for example, that two special clinics were
established to treat the victims.[102]
When the war ended, the use of these vehicles declined only gradually. In
the early 1950's in West Germany, at least 20,000 were still in use, and
their safe operation was still of great concern to medical
professionals.[103] 11. An Empire built on Coal, Air and
Water
In addition to producer gas, the Germans had the world's
most advanced coal gasification technology.[104] One
of the first steps was to produce carbon monoxide, which could then in
turn be used either as fuel or as an intermediate raw material in the
synthesis of other products. The following postwar statement by some of
America's greatest experts on German industry summarized the situation:[105]
"War-time Germany was an empire built on coal, air and
water. 84.5% of her aviation fuel, 85% of her motor fuel, more than 99% of
all her rubber, 100% of her concentrated nitric acid – the base substance
for all military explosives – and 99% of her no less important methanol
were synthesized from these three raw materials. … Coal
gasification facilities, where coal was converted into producer gas, were
the body of this industrial organism."
Because of Germany's isolation from adequate sources of
petroleum and natural rubber, she had already converted much of her
industry during World War One to use coal as a substitute source of
hydrocarbons for making synthetic liquid fuels as well as a vast
assortment of chemical substances, including synthetic rubber. Millions of
tons of carbon monoxide were produced as part of this technology and would
have been more than enough to kill the entire population of Europe many
times over.
Coal gasification plants were located in all of Germany's
industrial regions. One region containing several such plants was Silesia,
where the abundance of coal had for more than a century been the basis of
that region's industry. One Silesian facility was the IG Farbenindustrie
A.G. plant at Auschwitz, a small portion of whose carbon monoxide could
easily have been diverted through a small pipeline to Auschwitz-Birkenau
only a few miles away. But no one alleges that carbon monoxide was ever
used for mass murder at Auschwitz, although that would have been an ideal
place for it. For mass murder at Auschwitz, the Germans supposedly used a
completely different substance: Zyklon B.[106]
12. Scholarly Evasion and
Metamorphosis
A marvelous attempt at evasion and distortion took place
nearly twenty years ago in the Holocaust story. A group of twenty-four of
the world's leading Holocaust 'scholars' tried to drop the Diesel
claim by not even mentioning the engine type and by referring only to
gasoline engines. This amazing metamorphosis took place in
Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas, published in
Germany in 1983.[107] This extremely pretentious book represents the
state of Holocaust mythomania in the first half of the 1980s and was
recommended by the World Jewish Congress in London.[108] For
example, the next to last chapter entitled "The two Poison Gases"
(Die Zwei Giftgase) even gives the molecular weight of CO, twice,
as well as many other totally irrelevant technical properties of CO and
HCN. Many readers were no doubt impressed.
The clumsy juggling of evidence, which characterizes this
book, is shown by the fact that although the Gerstein Statement refers to
Diesel engines four times, the portion quoted in this supposedly
definitive rebuttal of the Revisionists does not mention the Diesels at
all, nor does it even describe the alleged killing process.[109] For
such a description, the book gives instead a piece of post-war testimony
by Dr. Pfannenstiel, in which there is also no mention of the use of
Diesels, but only of the use of "Diesel fuel" in the engine.[110] How
one could possibly have operated a gasoline engine with Diesel fuel was,
of course, left to the reader's imagination. The fact is that any
gasoline engine simply would not operate with Diesel fuel – and vice
versa.
A fatal flaw in the non-Diesel version of the CO murder
story is the recurrent claim that the corpses were "blue." Death
from gasoline engine exhaust would 'only' have been due to carbon monoxide
and could 'only' have caused a distinctive cherry red or pink appearance.
Although Pfannenstiel's post-war testimony is not nearly as wild as the
Gerstein Statement, nonetheless, he and other so-called eyewitnesses also
repeated the claim that the corpses were "blue."[111]
That the Gerstein Statement, even in a severely and
fraudulently abbreviated form, was included in Massentötungen at
all only shows how desperate the Holocaust scholars are to scrape together
anything and everything in support of their monstrous fantasy. The new
'revised' version of the Holocaust story is even more absurd than the old
version. Although an engineer might mistake a gasoline engine for a Diesel
engine, how could anyone mistake red for blue? Perhaps they were all
color-blind?
The Diesel gas chamber claim is rubbish – apparently some
of the exterminationists including Raul Hilberg recognize that now.
However, the alternate claim that gasoline engine exhaust was used instead
is rubbish also, since it contradicts the only evidence that is available,
namely the contradictory statements of the witnesses. For this reason, the
Holocaust pundits have recently returned to the old story: the 1993
Enzyklopädie des Holocaust[112]
agrees with the Jerusalem verdict[113]
about Demjanjuk's alleged crimes in Treblinka as well as with the findings
of German courts:[114] They were Diesel engines![115]
13. Conclusions
Although it would have been theoretically possible to
commit the deeds alleged for Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor with Diesel
engines, it would have required an inordinate amount of expertise and
determination as well as technical apparatus to impose or simulate
sufficient load on the Diesel engines. Such expertise is not even remotely
indicated by the eyewitness testimony or by any other evidence. Even if
all the necessary conditions had been met, the would-be murderers would
ultimately have had an arrangement which at best (worst?) would still have
been only marginally effective at its morbid task. It would be hard to
imagine a mass murder method more awkward and more inefficient. Even if
some deranged minds had tried for a time to commit murder with Diesel
exhaust, after a few tries it would have become apparent to even the most
demented fiend that something far better was needed. The idea that the
National Socialists actually used such a method not just for a few
fiendish experiments, but continually over many months in several
different locations is too preposterous. It never happened!
|
Illustration 10: New Russian Word admits frankly: The Revisionists have the
"air superiority"; Diesel exhaust is unsuitable for mass murder!
Here the issue of February 28, 1995: "Ideology Holocaust"
(Проверка
Катастрофой. Click to
enlarge.) |
If the National Socialists had ever intended to commit
mass murder with CO, they would doubtless have used the ubiquitous
producer gas technology. 500,000 producer gas vehicles are the
incontrovertible evidence that the Diesel claim is totally absurd.
According to Novoje Russkoje Slowo (New Russian
Word),[116] a New York daily newspaper edited by and for
emigrated Russian Jews, the world's most renowned Holocaust historian
Prof. Raul Hilberg made the following statement: "The Nazis did not manufacture soap from human fat, and did not kill their victims with Diesel exhaust. All these rumors were circulated in 1942, but we have the duty to thoroughly separate these rumors and fabrications from the facts and truth. Little lies provide fodder for the deniers and act against us."
The absence of credible evidence will continue to drive
revisionism long after the current crop of revisionists has gone.
Ultimately, the purveyors of the National Socialist homicidal gassing
claims condemn themselves. The German officials who suppress, even with
imprisonment, the least expression of doubt about the gassing claims
condemn themselves as well.
Notes
This chapter is an expanded and revised edition of F. P. Berg's article
"The Diesel Gas Chambers – Myth Within a Myth", The Journal of
Historical Review (JHR) 5(1) (1984), pp. 15-46 (online:
ihr.org/jhr/v05/v05p-15_Berg.html). Although this author gladly takes
credit for this work, the editor Germar Rudolf deserves credit also for
having made many substantive additions to the arguments and for many
important reference citations.
[1] |
The history of, and public reactions to, this travesty of
justice are described in the following chapter by A. Neumaier. |
[2] |
New York Post, March 17, 1990; The Washington
Times, March 19, 1990; repeated on "This Week with David
Brinkley", ABC television, Sunday, Dec. 8, 1991. |
[3] |
The New Republic, Oct. 22, 1990; G. F. Will,
Newsweek, March 4, 1996. See especially: Friedrich Paul Berg,
"Pat Buchanan and the Diesel Exhaust Controversy,"
www.codoh.com/gcgvwill.html |
[4] |
Cf. the chapter by W. Rademacher, this volume, as well as afp,
"Österreicher bestreitet Holocaust", Süddeutsche
Zeitung, March 13, 1992, p. 10; Neue Kronenzeitung, April
20, 1993; "Ein rauhes Lüftl", Bau 5/1995, p. 8;
"Rechte Gutachten", Profil, June 20, 1994; E. Kosmath,
letter to the editor, Bau 11/1994; ARA, "Lüftl wieder in
Kammer, 'Schwieriges Problem'", Standard (Vienna), Sept.
19, 1994. |
[5] |
W. Lüftl, "Sollen Lügen künftig Pflicht sein?",
Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 41(1) (1993), pp.
13f. (online: vho.org/D/DGG/Lueftl41_1.html). |
[6] |
J. Bailer, in Brigitte Bailer-Galanda, Wolfgang Benz, Wolfgang
Neugebauer (eds.), Wahrheit und Auschwitzlüge, Deuticke,
Vienna 1995, pp. 99-118, here 100-107; cf. G. Rudolf, "Zur Kritik
an 'Wahrheit und Auschwitzlüge'", in Vrij Historisch Onderzoek
(ed.), Kardinalfragen zur Zeitgeschichte, Vrij Historisch
Onderzoek, Berchem 1996, pp. 91-108, here 98-102 (online:
vho.org/D/Kardinal/Wahrheit.html; English:
vho.org/GB/Books/cq/critique.html). |
[7] |
Cf. the articles by G. Rudolf, Carlo Mattogno, and Jürgen Graf
in this volume. |
[8] |
R. Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews,
Quadrangle Books, Chicago 1961, p. 572; German ed.: Die
Vernichtung der europäischen Juden, Olle & Wolter, Berlin
1982, p. 604. |
[9] |
Updated with information from the official German Institut
für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for contemporary History). |
[10] |
Maximum figure given by F. Golczewski in W. Benz, Dimension
des Völkermords, Oldenbourg, Munich 1991, p. 495. |
[11] |
From 9 million to 500,000, depending on the source. At the
moment, 1 million is the officially espoused figure; cf. the chapter
on statistics by G. Rudolf, this volume. |
[12] |
R. Hilberg, op. cit. (note 8), Eng. ed. p. 562. |
[13] |
William B. Lindsey, "Zyklon B, Auschwitz, and the Trial of
Dr. Bruno Tesch", JHR 4(3) (1983), pp. 261-303 (online:
vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/4/3/Lindsey261-303.html). |
[14] |
H. Roques, Faut-il fusiller Henri Roques?, Ogmios
Diffusion, Paris 1986 (cf. online: abbc.com/aaargh/fran/
ACHR/ACHR.a.html); cf. also André Chelain, La Thèse de Nantes et
l'affaire Roques, Ogmios Diffusion, Paris 1989 ; abbrev.
German ed.: H. Roques, Die "Geständnisse" des Kurt Gerstein,
Druffel, Leoni 1986 (online: abbc.com/aaargh/deut/HRgerstein1.html);
cf. D. Felderer, JHR 1(1) (1980), pp. 69-80; D. Felderer,
JHR 1(2) (1980), pp. 169-172 (online:
vho.org/GB/Journals/1/1/Felderer69-80.html &
.../2/Felderer169-172.html); C. Mattogno, Il rapporto Gerstein –
Anatomia di un falso, Sentinella d'Italia, Monfalcone 1985; cf.
Raul Hilberg, "Expert's admission: Some gas death 'facts'
nonsense", Toronto Sun, Jan. 17, 1985. |
[15] |
An example of gross distortions is L. Poliakov, Harvest of
Hate, Schocken Books (Holocaust Library), New York 1979, p. 195
(French ed.: Bréviaire de la Haine, Calman-Levy, Paris 1951,
pp. 220ff.). |
[16] |
R. Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, Holmes
and Meier, New York 1985, pp. 890, 892, 963, 964, 975f. |
[17] |
According to Y. Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The
Operation Reinhard Death Camps, University Press, Bloomington
1987, p. 123, the real name of this Heckenholt was Lorenz
Hackenholt. Besides Hackenholt, Arad claims that Ivan Demjanjuk was
responsible for operating the Diesel gas chambers in Treblinka,
ibid., p. 86. In light of the disastrous outcome of the
Demjanjuk affair for the Israelis, it should now be obvious that
most of the eyewitness accounts used by Arad are worthless. It
appears that Arad's book, published when the Demjanjuk case was not
yet settled, is nothing more than propaganda for influencing the
trial's outcome. |
[18] |
This sentence is missing from the version given by H. Rothfels
(ed.), "Augenzeugenberichte zu den Massenvergasungen,"
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 1 (1953), pp. 177-194.
Instead, Rothfels remarked: "A strictly personal observation then
follows." |
[19] |
Version T2, H. Roques, op. cit. (note 14), German ed., p.
57. |
[20] |
Even closely crowded, 10 people per square meter are the
maximum; cf. E. Neufert, Bauentwurfslehre, Vieweg, Wiesbaden
1992, p. 27; cf. U. Walendy, Historische Tatsachen no. 29,
Verlag für Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Vlotho 1985, p. 12:
46 persons will fit onto the 4.44 m2 load area of a
heavy-goods vehicle, according to Quick, April 25,
1985. |
[21] |
Letter from Pfannenstiel to P. Rassinier, dated Aug. 3, 1963,
published in W. Stäglich, U. Walendy, "NS-Bewältigung",
Historische Tatsachen no. 5, Historical Review Press, Southam
(GB) 1979, p. 20. |
[22] |
Regarding the toxicology of carbon monoxide, cf. e.g.: W.
Forth, D. Henschler, W. Rummel, K. Starke, Allgemeine und
spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, 6th ed.,
Wissenschaftsverlag, Mannheim 1992, pp. 756ff.; S. Kaye, Handbook
of Emergency Toxicology, C. C. Thomas, Springfield 1980, pp.
187f.; C. J. Polson, R. N. Tattersall, Clinical Toxicology,
Lippincott, Philadelphia 1969, pp. 604-621. |
[23] |
L. Poliakov, Harvest of Hate, op. cit. (note 15),
p. 196. Further typical and fundamental sources that speak of the
use of Diesel engines include: W. Grossmann, Die Hölle von
Treblinka, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1947:
death occurred within 10-20 minutes due to tank engine exhaust,
sometimes also due to vacuum and steam; Eliahu Rosenberg,
Tatsachenbericht, Jewish Historical Documentation, Dec. 24,
1947, p. 4: mass murder with Diesel engine exhaust within 20-35
minutes (published in H. P. Rullmann, Der Fall Demjanjuk,
Verlag für ganzheitliche Forschung und Kultur, Struckum 1987, pp.
133-144); World Jewish Congress et al. (eds.), The Black
Book: The Nazi Crime Against the Jewish People, New York 1946;
reprint by Nexus Press, New York 1981: no fewer than 3 million
victims in Treblinka due to carbon monoxide from tank engines,
sometimes also due to vacuum and steam. |
[24] |
W. Braker, A. L. Mossman, Effects of Exposure to Toxic
Gases, Matheson Gas Products, East Rutherford 1970, p. 12;
2nd ed., D. Siegel, Lynhurst, N.J., 1977. |
[25] |
According to the eyewitness statements in E. Kogon, H. Langbein,
A. Rückerl et al. (eds.), Nationalsozialistische
Massentötungen durch Giftgas, Fischer, Frankfurt/Main 1986, p.
159 (E. Fuchs, 10 mins.), p. 167 (K.A. Schluch, 5-7 mins.), p. 174
(K. Gerstein, 18 mins.), p. 181 (A. Goldfarb, 20-25 mins.), the
gassing procedure allegedly sometimes took much less time; in
accordance with Gerstein: Matthes, in H. P. Rullmann, op.
cit. (note 23), p. 167: 30 min. |
[26] |
F. E. Camps, Medical and Scientific Investigations in the
Christie Case, Medical Publications Ltd., London 1953, p.
170. |
[27] |
Y. Henderson, H. W. Haggard, Noxious Gases, Reinhold
Publishing, New York 1943, p. 168. |
[28] |
P. S. Myers, "Automobile Emissions – A Study in Environmental
Benefits versus Technological Costs", Society of Automotive
Engineers Transactions 79 (1970), section 1, paper 700182, p.
662. |
[29] |
Keith Simpson (ed.), Taylor's Principles and Practice of
Medical Jurisprudence, J. & A. Churchill, London 1965, pp.
366f.; Graph 2 originally appeared in K. Simpson, R.A. Furbank,
Journal for Medicine, 2 (1995), p. 5. |
[30] |
Hb× CO – hemoglobin-carbon monoxide
compound, the compound formed by CO and blood hemoglobin, whereby
the oxygen (Hb× O2,
oxyhemoglobin) becomes displaced. |
[31] |
The Soviets used gasoline engines in some of their tanks (models
BT, T 28, T 35). Soviet Diesel engines first appeared in
1939 in the T-34 Stalin tank and surprised everyone outside the
Soviet Union at the beginning of the German-Soviet war (The heavy
tanks KW Ia and KW II had Diesel engines, too). The heavy
Diesel engine of the T 34, model "W2", was a V12
cylinder Diesel (undivided chamber) with 550 hp, 38.86 l cubic
capacity and a maximum 1900 rpm; cf. Augustin, Motortechnische
Zeitschrift 5(4/5) (1943), pp. 130-139; ibid., 5(6/7)
(1943), pp. 207-213; ibid., 6(1/2) (1944), p. 40; and H.
Scheibert, Der russische Kampfwagen T-34 und seine Abarten,
Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Friedberg 1988. Diesel engines from submarines
are also mentioned: Jochen von Lang, Eichmann Interrogated,
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, New York 1983, p. 75 (German ed.:
Das Eichmann-Protokoll, Severin und Siedler, Berlin 1982, p.
72), mentions a Russian submarine; see also Hannah Arendt,
Eichmann in Jerusalem, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1990, p. 181,
who quotes a statement Eichmann made during the trial. Alleging the
use of a large submarine engine in the heart of Poland is
ridiculous. Marine engines are invariably far, far heavier than
comparable horsepower automotive engines to achieve reliable,
continuous, long-term service. |
[32] |
In Germany as well, the emission levels from Diesel engines have
always been below the threshold values set by the Federal Emissions
Regulation. This is why Diesels were the only kind of engine to be
exempt from the mandatory use of catalytic converters until
1994. |
[33] |
David F. Merrion, "Effect of Design Revisions on Two Stroke
Cycle Diesel Engine Exhaust", Society of Automotive Engineers
Transactions 77 (1968), paper 680422, p. 1535. |
[34] |
M. A. Elliott, R. F. Davis, "Composition of Diesel Exhaust
Gas", Society of Automotive Engineers Quarterly
Transactions 4(3) (1950), p. 345. Unfortunately, some of the
following graphs use air/fuel, some fuel/air ratios, so we are
forced to use them both here. An air/fuel ration of 18:1 equals a
fuel/air ration of 0.055 (20:1 = 0.05, 25:1 = 0.04, 33.3:1 = 0.03
...) |
[35] |
Over the years, a number of exterminationists have falsely
speculated that Diesels could simply be adjusted somehow by perhaps
turning a screw somewhere or by changing the injection timing to
give high CO emission levels. If it were so easy it would be of
great concern to auto emission inspectors but it is of no concern at
all. The excess air in the cylinders and exhaust drives the
combustion process toward near perfection. There is no basis
anywhere in the automotive literature for such an exterminationist
argument. Let the exterminationists try to find such evidence in the
literature or anywhere else. The EPA will be extremely
interested. |
[36] |
In the past 50 years the data used for Graphs 4 and 5 have been
repeatedly used in the technical literature by numerous engineers.
This shows, on the one hand, how reliable the data are that were
used for this graph. On the other hand it also underlines the nature
of this data as the worst possible emission curves of Diesel
engines. Two earlier works which drew on this data are: H. H.
Schrenk, L. B. Berger, "Composition of Diesel Engine Exhaust
Gas", American Journal of Public Health 31(7) (1941), p.
674; and Martin A. Elliott, "Combustion of Diesel Fuels",
Society of Automotive Engineers Quarterly Transactions 3(3)
(1949), p. 509. |
[37] |
While the experiments involved, and their purpose, were
discussed in numerous articles, the paper by J. C. Holtz, "Safety
with mobile Diesel-powered equipment underground", Report of
Investigations No. 5616, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau
of Mines, Washington, D.C., 1960, p. 67, is probably the best; cf.
Holtz, R. W. Dalzell, "Diesel Exhaust Contamination of Tunnel
Air", ibid., 1968. Also John C. Holtz
and M. A. Elliott, "The Significance of Diesel-Exhaust Gas
Analysis," Transactions of the ASME, 63 (1941), pp.
97-105 |
[38] |
The earlier exception for coal mines arose not from true health
and safety considerations but from the political pressure of the
United Mine Workers Union which saw all liquid fuels as a threat to
job security. Diesel locomotives had cost the UMWA thousands of
jobs. Electrically-driven vehicles and equipment, with lengthy power
cables, derived their energy from coal burned in electric power
plants and were, therefore, entirely acceptable to the union. S.O.
Ogden "The war over Diesels," Coal Mining &
Processing, June 1978, p. 102. |
[39] |
Data taken from: M. A. Elliott, R. F. Davis, op. cit.
(note 34), p. 333. |
[40] |
D. Pankow, Toxikologie des Kohlenmonoxids, VEB Verlag
Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin (East) 1981, p. 24, also states that
Diesel engines under full load do not produce more than 0.4% CO by
volume. |
[41] |
Edward F. Obert, Internal Combustion Engines and Air
Pollution, Intext Educational Publishers, New York 1973, p.
361. |
[42] |
Y. Henderson, H. W. Haggard, op. cit. (note 42), pp.
144-145. |
[43] |
J. S. Haldane, J. G. Priestley, Respiration, Yale UP, New
Haven 1935, pp. 223-224. |
[44] |
Note: The composition of exhaust gasses is almost independent
from the rpm's of the engine. The rpm's simply determine how much
gas is produced. If the rpm's are lower, for the same fuel/air
ratio the whole process will take longer. |
[45] |
Based on the data from Graphs 4 and 5. |
[46] |
One objection to my 1984 essay was that I had not properly
considered the combined effects of carbon monoxide and reduced
oxygen. If one determines an "effective carbon monoxide
level," as explained in this text, one will see that there is no
significant increase in toxicity for half-hour exposures due to
reduced oxygen until one gets the engine running under heavy loads
which is exactly what I claimed in 1984. |
[47] |
L.J. Meduna, Carbon Dioxide Therapy, C. C. Thomas,
Springfield 1958, pp. 3-19. |
[48] |
J.D.P. Graham, The Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute
Poisoning, Oxford UP, London 1962, pp. 215-217. |
[49] |
L.T. Fairhall, Industrial Toxicology, Williams &
Wilkins, Baltimore 1957, p. 180. |
[50] |
M. Daunderer, Klinische Toxikologie, 32nd
supplement 21/87, ecomed, Landsberg 1987, p. 1. |
[51] |
J.M. Arena, Poisoning: Toxicology – Symptoms –
Treatments, C. C. Thomas, Springfield 1979, p. 243; J.D.P.
Graham, op. cit. (note 48), p. 216. |
[52] |
W. Forth et al., op. cit. (note 22), pp. 760ff.;
M. Daunderer, Klinische Toxikologie, 33rd supplement 1/88,
ecomed, Landsberg 1988, pp. 1ff. |
[53] |
W. Forth et al., op. cit. (note 22), pp. 761, 765;
M. Daunderer, Klinische Toxikologie, 34th supplement 2/88,
ecomed, Landsberg 1988, pp. 1ff. |
[54] |
Cf. R.E.
Pattle, H. Stretch, F. Burgess, K. Sinclair, J.A.G. Edginton,
Brit. J. industr. Med. 14 (1957) pp. 47-55, here p. 50.
This study was brought to the author's attention by Charles D.
Provan an independent researcher who still believes in Nazi
gassings. I referred to this possibility and to this source in 1994
for the first time: F.P. Berg, "Die Diesel-Gaskammern: Mythos im
Mythos", in Ernst Gauss (ed.), Grundlagen zur
Zeitgeschichte, Grabert, Tübingen 1994, pp. 321-345. |
[55] |
J. Falbe, M. Regitz (eds.), Römpp Chemie Lexikon, v. 5,
Thieme, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 4314f. |
[56] |
M. A. Elliott, R. F. Davis, op. cit. (note 39), p.
345. |
[57] |
R. Kühn, K. Birett, Merkblätter Gefährlicher
Arbeitsstoffe, 69th supplement 11/93, Technische Regeln für
Gefahrstoffe (TRGS) 554: "Dieselmotoremissionen", ecomed,
Landsberg 1993; ibid., 61st supplement 9/92, TRGS 102,
Technische Richtkonzentrationen (TRK) für gefährliche Stoffe, pp.
93ff.; L. Roth, M. Daunderer, Giftliste, 23rd supplement
2/86, TRGS 102, ecomed, Landsberg 1986, pp. 51ff. |
[58] |
Cf. the experiment by R. E. Pattle et al., op.
cit. (note 54). |
[59] |
It is interesting to note that some people cite this data as
proof that it is possible to attain high CO-levels with
Diesel engines: cf. Martin Pägert,
(www.eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de/~rwulf/leuchter/leucht19.html).
What is not mentioned, however, is that this is possible only with
special, gaseous fuels, not with Diesel fuel. |
[60] |
H.H. Müller-Neuglück, H. Werkmeister, "Grubensicherheit der
Diesellokomotiven", Glückauf, Aug. 23, 1930, p.
1145. |
[61] |
S. Gilbert, "The Use of Diesel Engines Underground in British
Coal Mines", The Mining Engineer (GB), June 1974, p.
403. |
[62] |
Dennis S. Lachtman, "Diesel Exhaust – Health Effects",
Mining Congress Journal, January 1981, p. 40. |
[63] |
Mine Safety & Health Administration. |
[64] |
Other obvious falsehoods within his 'statement' may have been
intended to serve the same purpose. He may have simply wanted a
cover story to save himself without providing any long term comfort
to Germany's enemies. His own role in the SS with the application of
Zyklon B, albeit for life saving work, would have given him
additional reason to be fearful about his own future. |
[65] |
Eran Sher (ed.), Handbook of Air Pollution from Internal
Combustion Engines: Pollution Formation and Control, Boston, San
Diego, New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto: Academic Press,
1998, p. 288. |
[66] |
See for this Arnulf Neumaier, "The Treblinka Holocaust",
this volume; cf. also Yoram Sheftel, The Demjanjuk Affair. The
Rise and Fall of the Show Trial, Victor Gollancz, London
1994. |
[67] |
When testing the emissions of Diesel engines, German engineers
sometimes impose load on the engine without coupling any equipment
by simply opposing the inertia of the engine. Accelerating an engine
with the fuel pedal depressed and with no load increases the engine
speed rapidly and the fuel/air ratio as well, but only for a few
seconds. This may suffice to measure the engine's exhaust
composition at high fuel/air ratios, but if the cylinder wall
temperatures are still unusually low, this may give erroneous test
result. |
[68] |
E. Fuchs, in E. Kogon et .al. (eds.), op. cit. (note 25),
p. 163: "… I set up a light machine in the extermination camp
there, so that the barracks can be lit electrically …"; E.
Roosevelt, A. Einstein et al. (eds.), The Black Book of
Polish Jewry, Roy Publishers, New York 1943, pp. 142ff.: murder
by means of steam, Diesel engines for supplying power. Cf. also A.
Donat (ed.), The Death Camp Treblinka, Holocaust Library, New
York 1979, p. 157, as well as the verdict of the Düsseldorf District
Court in the Treblinka Trial, Ref. 8 I Ks 2/64,
p. 300; Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 17), p. 42. |
[69] |
Kostenüberschlag über Notstromaggregate für K.G.L.,
Central Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police of
Auschwitz, O./S., Oct. 26, 1942. |
[70] |
Engine size certainly determines the total amounts of
pollutants, toxic or otherwise that an engine will produce, but it
has no bearing on the concentrations of those pollutants in the
exhaust. It is the concentrations which are the critical
consideration and not the total amounts of pollutants once levels
have stabilized inside the gas chamber. A large engine will fill a
potential gas chamber quicker than a small engine, but that is all.
Concentrations within the chamber will never exceed the levels
measured directly in the engine's exhaust. |
[71] |
Diesel engines have never used carburetors (all gasoline engines
did until recently), and hence no idle-mixture adjustment screws
which were always part of the carburetors and allowed fuel/air
ratios to be easily maladjusted. For this reason, Pattle et
al. (note 54) went to the round-about-method of 'choking' rather
than purchasing a suitable brake dynamometer, which suggests just
how difficult it was to get such devices even in a postwar
environment. The choking employed was extreme: the air intake was
restricted to less than 21/2% of its normal size, which caused
engine misfiring during warm-up. |
[72] |
R. E. Pattle et al. made two experiments with that
setting, one resulting in only 0.12% CO, the other in 0.22% CO; no
reason was given; CO2 was between 2.34% and 3.58%; op.
cit. (note 54), pp. 49f. For another discussion of the same
material see: Conrad Grieb "Holocaust: Dieselmotorabgase töten
langsam," Vierteljahreshefte für freie
Geschichtsforschung 1(3) (1997), pp. 134-137 (online:
vho.org\VffG\1997\3\Grieb3.html). |
[73] |
For a detailed analysis of the gas chamber claims for Treblinka,
see C. Mattogno, J. Graf, Treblinka. Vernichtungslager oder
Durchgangslager? Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings 2002, pp.
145-151, also in particular the Soviet 'gas chamber' plan on page
397; Engl.: Treblinka. Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?
Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2003. |
[74] |
Cf. A. Donat (ed.), op. cit. (note 68), pp. 34, 157ff.,
and the Treblinka verdict of Düsseldorf, ibid., p. 300ff.; Y.
Arad, op. cit. (note 17), p. 119f.; J.-F. Steiner,
Treblinka, Stalling, Oldenburg 1966, p. 173. Regarding the
engine type, cf. note 31. |
[75] |
J.-F. Steiner, op. cit. (note 74), p. 173, speaks of 200
people per chamber. J. Wiernik (in A. Donat, op. cit. (note
68), p. 161), on the other hand, fantasizes about 1,000 to 1,200 per
chamber, whose area he gives as 7 × 7 m, in other words more
than 20 people per square meter. Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 17),
pp. 120f., puts a maximum of 380 but an actual estimate of up to 300
people into each chamber, and at times speaks of only 6 chambers,
not 10. |
[76] |
Augustin, Motortechnische Zeitschrift 5(4/5) (1943), pp.
130-139. |
[77] |
The resultant excess pressure would have exploded the chamber
after only a few minutes; cf. the chapter by A. Neumaier in this
volume. |
[78] |
Assuming a linear increase in the CO content. |
[79] |
W.F. Marshall, R.W. Hurn, "Hazard from Engines Rebreathing
Exhaust in Confined Space", U.S. Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Mines, Report of Investigations 7757, 1973, pp.
7-10. |
[80] |
H. Bour, I. McA. Ledingham, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning,
Elsevier, Amsterdam 1967, p. 2. |
[81] |
W. Oerley, "Entwicklung und Stand der Holzgaserzeuger in
Österreich, März 1938", Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift
11 (1939), p. 314. |
[82] |
The German technical automotive literature of that time is chock
full of material about this technology that has been so completely
forgotten today. For an introductory overview, cf.
Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift 18 (1940) and 18 (1941). Cf.
also E. Eckermann, Alte Technik mit Zukunft: Die Entwicklung des
Imbert-Generators, Oldenbourg, Munich 1986. |
[83] |
H. Fiebelkorn, Behandlung und Instandsetzung von
Fahrzeug-Gaserzeugeranlagen, W. Knapp, Halle 1944, p. 189; cf.
2nd ed., ibid., 1948. |
[84] |
Walter J. Spielberger, Kraftfahrzeuge und Panzer des
österreichischen Heeres 1896 bis heute, Motorbuch Verlag,
Stuttgart 1976, pp. 207, 213. |
[85] |
Cf. the chapter by I. Weckert, this volume. |
[86] |
A. Hitler, July 15, 1940, quoted from W. Ostwald,
Generator-Jahrbuch, 1942, J. Kasper & Co., Berlin 1943,
p. 79. |
[87] |
W. Ostwald, op. cit. (note 86), pp. 41f. |
[88] |
E. Eckermann, op. cit. (note 82). |
[89] |
E. Hafer, Die gesetzliche Regelung des Generatoren- und
Festkraftstoff-Einsatzes im Großdeutschen Reich, J. Kasper &
Co., Berlin 1943, p. 15. |
[90] |
Letter from H. Göring to the Reich Economic Minister, the Reich
Transportation Minister, the Commanders-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht
units, the Chief of the Wehrmacht Supreme Command, the Reich
Ministers for Armament and Munition as well as for the occupied
eastern territories, according to E. Hafer, op. cit. (note
89), p. 17. |
[91] |
Motortechnische Zeitschrift, Nr. 6/7, 1943, p. 3A. |
[92] |
E. Hafer, op. cit. (note 89), p. 36. |
[93] |
E. Hafer, op. cit. (note 89), supplement, p. 35a. |
[94] |
U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, The German Oil Industry
Ministerial Report Team 78, War Department, Washington, D.C.,
1947, p. 73. More than likely these were training tanks
(Schulungspanzer) drafted into combat during the last months
of the war. |
[95] |
L. Gassner, "Verkehrshygiene und Schädlingsbekämpfung",
Gesundheits-Ingenieur 66(15) (1943), p. 175. |
[96] |
"S" stood for "standard" as in standard drive via
the rear wheels, as opposed to the "A" vehicles with
all-wheel drive, and the special or "Sonder" vehicles
abbreviated as "Sd.-Kfz"; all vehicles such as tanks, for
example, had their own Sonder class numbers. Another
spezial class was designated with a lower case "s."
cf. W. Spielberger, Spezial-Panzer-Fahrzeuge des deutschen
Heeres, Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, pp. 153f.; W.
Spielberger, Die Halbkettenfahrzeuge des deutschen Heeres,
2nd ed., ibid., 1984, pp. 170f.; W.J.L. Davies,
German Army Handbook 1939-1945, Arco, New York 1981, p. 90.
In other words, the German designations had nothing whatever to do
with any sinister cover-up as Hilberg and others have often
alleged. |
[97] |
F. Kadell, Die Katyn-Lüge, Herbig, Munich 1991. |
[98] |
All Saurer Diesel engines employed, even before the war, a swirl
chamber (Doppelwirbelkammer) machined into the top of each
piston. This design had been unused for many years after the war and
after the demise of the Swiss Saurer. However, the concept has been
revived as "bowel in piston" by Audi and is now used widely
in the most advanced Diesel engines of VW and Mercedes Benz to help
meet the most stringent environmental emissions standards; see John
B. Heywood, Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals,
McGraw-Hill, 1988. Of all the Diesels available, the Saurer designs
were the least likely to have served as any kind of source for toxic
emissions. |
[99] |
The Trial in the Case of the Atrocities Committed by the
German Fascist Invaders and their Accomplices in Krasnodar and
Krasnodar Territory, July 14 to 17, 1943, Foreign Languages
Publishing House, Moscow 1943. |
[100] |
The People's Verdict, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1944,
page 43. |
[101] |
Nürnberger Dokument PS-501; cf. I. Weckert in this volume. |
[102] |
Aage Grut, Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Ejnar
Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1949, p. 69. See also Leo Noro, "Über die
durch Motorabgase verursachten Kohlenoxydvergiftungen bei der
Mannschaft von Panzerformationen", Acta Medica
Scandinavica, CXXI(IV) (1945); K. v. Bagh,
"Neurologisch-psychiatische Gesichtspunkte zur Diagnostik und
Behandlung der chronischen Generatorgasvergiftungen", Annales
Medicinae Internae Fenniae, Vol. 35, 1946. |
[103] |
E. W. Baader, Gewerbekrankheiten, Munich/Berlin 1954, pp.
178-184. |
[104] |
Cf. esp.: W. Gumz, J. F. Foster (Battelle Memorial Institute),
"A Critical Survey of Methods of Making a High BTU Gas from
Coal", Research Bull. No. 6, American Gas Association,
New York 1953; further detailed references are given there. |
[105] |
U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Oil Division Final
Report, War Department, Washington, D.C., 1947, p. 1
[retrans. from German trans.]. |
[106] |
Cf. the chapter by G. Rudolf, this volume, as well as F. P.
Berg, "Typhus and the Jews", JHR 8(4) (1988), pp.
433-481 (online: vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/8/4/Berg433-481.html); F.
P. Berg, "The German Delousing Chambers", JHR 7(1)
(1986), pp. 73-94 (online: codoh.com/gcgv/gcgvtyph.html). |
[107] |
E. Kogon et al. (eds.), op. cit. (note 25). |
[108] |
Chicago Jewish Sentinel, Dec. 22, 1983. |
[109] |
E. Kogon et al. (eds.), op. cit. (note 25), pp.
171f. Another claim in this book which indicates gasoline engines is
that of E. Fuchs, from 1960: "It was a heavy Russian gasoline
engine (presumably a tank or tractor engine) with at least 200 hp
(V-engine, 8 cylinders, water-cooled)", p. 158, excerpted from
papers of the Dortmund Public Prosecutor's Office,
Ref. 45 Js 27/61 (Ref. ZSL:
208 AR-Z 251/59, v. 5, fol. 988). However, the
Soviets only used Diesel engines for their powerful tank engines,
cf. note 31. |
[110] |
Testimony by Prof. W. Pfannenstiel, around 1960, excerpted from
papers of the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office,
Ref. 22 Js 64-83/61 (Ref. ZSL:
208 AR-Z 252/59, v. 1, fol. 135ff.), quoted
from: E. Kogon et al., op. cit. (note 25), p. 173. Cf.
note 21. |
[111] |
E.g., his testimony on June 6, 1950, before a Darmstadt
court, quoted from Saul Friedländer, Counterfeit Nazi: The
Ambiguity of Good, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1967, p. 118;
cf. also, e.g., K. A. Schluch, around 1960, excerpted
from documents of the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office,
Ref. 22 Js 64-83/61 (Ref. ZSL: 208
AR-Z 252/59, v. VIII, fol. 1511), quoted from: E.
Kogon et al. (eds.), op. cit. (note 25), p. 168; cf.
A. Rückerl (ed.), Nationalsozialistische Vernichtungslager im
Spiegel deutscher Strafprozesse, dtv, Munich 1978, p. 142; for a
more in-depth analysis of the dilemma faced to this day by every
German who ever had anything even remotely to do with one of the
camps – Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor were in fact more transit
camps than concentration camps – see W. Lindsey, op. cit.
(note 13), as well as the chapter by M. Köhler, this volume. |
[112] |
E. Jäckel, P. Longerich, J. H. Schoeps (eds.), Enzyklopädie
des Holocaust, 3 vols., Argon, Berlin 1993, entries for
"Aktion Reinhard", v. 1, p. 15 "Benzin oder
Dieselmotoren" (Gasoline or Diesel Engines), "Belzec",
v. 1, p. 176 "Dieselmotor mit 250 PS" (Diesel
engine with 250 hp), "Sobibor", v. 3, p. 1332
"200 PS-Motor" (Engine with 200 hp), "Treblinka",
v. 3, p. 1428 "Dieselmotor" (Diesel engine),
"Gaskammer" (Gas chamber), v. 1, p. 505
"Dieselauspuffgas … in den Vernichtungslagern im
Generalgouvernement" (Diesel exhaust ... in the extermination
camps in the General Government) and "Vernichtungslager"
(Extermination camps), v. 3, p. 1496: "These
extermination camps [Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka] used carbon
monoxide gas produced by Diesel engines." According to this
source, the Sobibor camp (250,000 victims) is the only case where
there is any uncertainty regarding the engine type. In Belzec
(600,000 victims) and Treblinka (700,000 to 1,200,000 victims) they
were definitely Diesel engines. |
[113] |
Jerusalem District Court, Criminal Case No. 373/86, verdict
against Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, p. 2: "Diesel motors",
p. 7: SU-tanks: V12 Diesel engines with 500/550 hp. |
[114] |
A. Rückerl (ed.), op. cit. (note 111), pp. 61, 64,
133 (re. Belzec); 203f., 226 (re. Treblinka); regarding Sobibor
there is talk of gasoline engines: pp. 108, 165, 200; cf. the
verdict of the Munich I District Court,
Ref. 110 Ks 3/64 (Belzec) and the verdicts of the
Düsseldorf District Court, Ref. 8 I Ks 2/64 and
8 Ks 1/69 against K. Franz and F. P. Stangl
(both Treblinka), in H. Lichtenstein, Im Namen des
Volkes?, Bund, Cologne 1984, pp. 187f. (death after 15
minutes due to Diesel exhaust gas in gas-tight chamber in Belzec),
p. 201 (3 screwed-down Diesel engines in Treblinka). |
[115] |
The chemist J. Bailer also fervently defends the Diesel version,
although he plays with a stacked deck, cf. note 6. The same goes for
Martin Pägert, op. cit. (note 59). |
[116] |
Y. Manin, Novoje Russkoje Slowo, February 26-29, 1995;
regarding more details about this article: M. Dragan,
"Revisionisten haben Luftüberlegenheit",
Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung, 1(3)
(1997), p. 138 (online:
vho.org/VffG/1997/3/Dragan3.html). |
[117] |
W. Heller, "Neuzeitliche Holzgas-anlagen für Kraftfahrzeuge," ATZ Automobiltechnische
Zeitschrift, Heft 18, 1940, page 458.
One of the more notable features of all producer gas generators, just as shown here, is the typical "blower" (Gebläse, Anfachgebläse in German).
I have yet to see any producer gas arrangement, and I have seen many in the literature, without such a blower.
Of course, each blower could easily discharge poison gas (with as much as 35% CO) once the system was warmed up, and as soon as the blower was simply switched on by the driver--and would have
provided an ideal gas for murdering anyone.
The fact that such arrangements have never even been implicated means either that the Nazis were
technological morons or that the anti-German gassing claims are rubbish, and totally false. Nazi gassings never happened!
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