Ирвинг против Липштадт Holocaust Denial on Trial, Trial
Judgment: Electronic Edition, by Charles GrayTable of Contents
|The use of the gas vans t... >| The origins of the use of gas
by the Nazi regime 6.68 In order to pinpoint the origins of the
Nazi practice of killing by the administration of poison gas, it
is necessary to go back some years. There was a measure of
agreement between the parties that the Nazis moved from the
gassing of the disabled to the gassing of able-bodied Jews in
the period from 1939 to early 1942. 6.69 As Irving accepted, the
so-called "euthanasia programme" was authorised by Hitler in
September 1939. It permitted specified doctors to put to death
those suffering from grave mental or physical disabilities.
Thousands were killed, mostly by the administration of carbon
monoxide gas kept in bottles. In addition, however, many were
killed using gas vans which the victims of the programme were
induced to enter, whereupon the exhaust of the vans was pumped
inside killing those inside within