The use of gas vans by Germans to kill Jews, Poles, Romani people, the mentally ill people, and prisoners in occupied territories during World War II originated with Aktion T4 in 1939.

Aug 28, 2015 · Gas vans were first used in 1940, when Polish mentally ill children were locked in a sealed van and killed by carbon monoxide. Prior to gassing, the victims were ordered to hand over all of their valuables. They then had to undress themselves and finally entered the gas vans.

The gas vans were regular cargo trucks that the Nazis re-designed so the exhaust flowed back into the cargo area. When the engine was run, the people locked in the back of the truck were poisoned by carbon monoxide or suffocated due to lack of oxygen.

The idea of the gas van originated with SS brigadefuhrer Artur Nebe, commander of Einsatzgruppe B, which operated in territories close to the central front and which had carried out in Belorussia large scale shooting actions of Jews, communists, and other "asocial elements."

During WW2 two types were used: small versions with about 3.5t payload for about 50 persons (Diamond, Opel Blitz, and Renault) and bigger ones with approximately 5t payload for around 70 victims (Saurer). The wagons had an air-sealed car-body and looked like furniture vans. With a removable tube the exhaust fumes could be led into the car body.

The gas-van is a special product of the Third Reich, it is a van with a gas-tight cabin/container-box/superstructure mounted on its chassis/understructure used to kill people by the motor-exhausts led into that cabin.

In March 1942, 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jewish women and children, were put to death by gas van in the Yugoslavian concentration camp called Sajmiste. Vans were also employed in Lublin, where they were used to kill Polish and Jewish prisoners in the Lublin fortress prison.

There were many eyewitnesses to the design, construction, and use of the gas vans. These eyewitnesses included the drivers of the gas vans, the heads of the Einsatzgruppen units that employed the gas vans, and, finally, bystanders and survivors in …

Since December 1941, for example, 97,000 have been processed using three vans without any faults developing in the vehicles. The well-known explosion in Kulmhof (Chelmno) must be treated as a special case.

In the mid-1930s, Isai Davidovich Berg – a Russian Jew and head of the economic department of the NKVD for the Moscow region – had the idea of using prisoner-transfer vans to kill inmates locked inside by piping the engine exhaust gases into the enclosed coachwork box.