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Gas Vans at the Nuremberg Trials
Gas-van claims played only a minor role during the International Military Tribunal after the war. Whenever they were mentioned, these claims were based on allegations made by the Soviet prosecutors, who used the same kind of “evidence” to prove their claim as had been presented during the Krasnodar and Kharkov show trials. Attempts by the defense to have this propaganda material rejected as impermissible was denied by the court, since the IMT’s statute clearly stated that any records and findings of any court of the Allied nations, including the Soviet Union, were considered admissible, self-evident and true. This way, the claims made during Stalinist travesties of justice became legally binding “truths” for all Allied and (later) German courts.
Witness testimonies by German officials regarding these vans are characterized either by their lack of any concrete knowledge about them, if their existence was admitted, or by an outright denial that such devices ever existed. The IMT protocols mention at least 63 affidavits affirming that no such vans ever existed in German units. None of these affidavits submitted to the IMT seem to have survived.
Documents produced in preparation of the IMT aiming at substantiating gas-van claims – not all of which were submitted as evidence – exhibit clear hallmarks of crude manipulations and forgeries.
(For more details, see the entries on Gaubschat Company (Just Document); Becker, August; Turner, Harald.)
https://nukebook.org/instruments/tool/gas-vans/305/
