Star Wars has invited Nazi comparisons — but usually superficial ones Darth Vader in his flared helmet and Imperial bridge officers in Hugo Boss-inspired feldgrau had all the outward markers of space fascism while largely sidestepping racial ideology or tactics the Disney+ show took its cue from the infamous meeting where the Nazis outlined the final steps of the Holocaust — and even created a new sort of space Jew for the occasion Director Orson Krennic (Australian Jewish actor Ben Mendelsohn) gathers a select circle of the Empire’s most decorated bureaucrats advising them that this particular meeting is not to be included on their calendars before lowering a shade on the window and playing a cheery informational video about Ghorman a proud planet of spider silk merchants marked for possible annihilation If all this secrecy seems a lot like the Wannsee Conference “The very first scene that Krennic has where he talks about Ghorman, that’s based on the Wannsee convention — the Nazi convention where the Nazis got together and planned the final solution over a business lunch,” Andor creator Tony Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter At the 1942 Wannsee Conference — indeed a luncheon — shorthand minutes were taken, but the conference’s chair Reinhard Heydrich ordered, at the meeting’s close, that the notes were not to be verbatim. Only a protocol summary of the meeting survives Gilroy and director Ariel Kleiman chose a more dramatic locale than the Wannsee villa instead opting for what the Reporter describes as Star Wars’ answer to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Bavaria and Hohenwerfen Castle in Austria That the scene is chilling — and recalls the quite good HBO film of the meeting 2001’s Conspiracy with Kenneth Branagh as Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann — is a testament to Gilroy’s more sophisticated take on George Lucas’ universe But the Empire’s target of Ghorman — desired for its deposits of a mineral called Kalkite — is also more than a bit suggestive of the Nazis’ chosen victims As we watch the video of the doomed weavers spinning fibers there is a flash of what looks remarkably like a Torah scroll with wooden dowels being closed even if in-universe it’s some traditional way to roll textiles.) The people on the street — who aren’t cutting cloth — are dressed a lot like pre-war Europeans including a man in a skullcap who sells his wares from a suitcase Gilroy may have gilded the lily; the parallels to libels aimed Jews are so exhaustive when Krennic cuts the team behind the smears off to say “we get the idea,” it feels like a writer’s note to self Minus a wedding guest in episode three, we haven’t seen Ghormans in the flesh yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are also accused of funding some form of alien Marxism. We’ll have to stay tuned to learn more about these people — who Wookieepedia identifies as including some brave partisans — but any sort of space Jew that improves upon the template of Watto is to be welcome in this galaxy PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.[email protected]@pjgrisar I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward American Jews need independent news they can trust At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S rising antisemitism and polarized discourse This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs Copyright © 2025 The Forward Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Emile Ducke.October 7, 2024 ShareSave This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. In her new short story, “The Ghosts of Wannsee,” the author Lauren Groff captures the precise moment when a friendship changes forever “Wannsee” follows two friends from high school who reunite one afternoon after many years apart; the encounter alters their understanding of each other in ways that neither anticipated Groff’s narrator remembers her old friend Leslie as a childhood crush—and she remembers his father now the partner of a wildly successful designer is not eager to summon old ghosts from his past When the narrator meets up with him on a brief layover in Berlin she realizes that the person standing in front of her is no longer her Leslie: “Oh how strange to see people whom you’ve loved for so long,” Groff writes “You don’t really see their current face; instead you see the faces of your greatest intensity of love.” Groff’s most recent novel, The Vaster Wilds, which the Atlantic contributor Judith Shulevitz likened to a “pilgrimage,” followed a solitary young girl running through the wilderness on foot in 17th-century America The narrator in “Wannsee” takes a cab through contemporary Berlin The two settings couldn’t be more different but Groff’s novel and her short story share an interest in the revelations and limitations of a single point of view In “Wannsee,” the narrator is caught off guard by Leslie’s anger at her attempts at sympathy Groff taps into the deeply unsettling reality that the memories we have are shaped by our perspectives Photograph by Emile DuckeThe Ghosts of Wannsee the winter sky is screwed on so tight that all the world beneath becomes dark and gray and grim I could glimpse the furious ghosts of the place seething in the middle of the lake transforming into whitecaps if I looked at them directly vigorously toweling off their withered loins When I’d come to the ferry launch to Pfaueninsel the peacocks across the spit of water would cry out so loudly in their winter rutting I could easily imagine that the island was entirely made of peacocks that the castle there was wrapped in a hissing sheet of iridescent blue the million eyes of Argos on their tail feathers staring up Read the full story. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter Sign up for The Wonder Reader, a Saturday newsletter in which our editors recommend stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight a group of Nazi leaders met to coordinate a continent-wide genocide Top Image: Entrance to the Memorial and Educational Site-House of the Wannsee Conference On the afternoon of Tuesday, January 20, 1942, Chief of Security Police and the SD, Reinhard Heydrich, telephoned his superior, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler The long-planned conference had been a success Described in a later summary (that came to be known as the Wannsee Protocol) as a “Conference on the Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” the gathering of dignitaries of the Nazi Party and German government had only just dispersed Students of the history of World War II are certainly familiar with high-level meetings such as the conferences between Allied leaders at Tehran 56/58 in Southwest Berlin that January day was as consequential as any of those meetings There in an elegant villa used as a guest house by the nerve-center of the National Socialist terror system Nazi leaders coordinated the destruction of an entire people A photograph of the entrance to the villa snapped and generously shared by my friends captures the picturesque quality of the place Beauty and absolute horror commingled on its premises The meeting kicked off around noon on January 20 Fourteen men sat at the table with Heydrich Among them was Heydrich’s trusted subordinate since 1938 the SD and then RSHA’s “expert” on forced emigration of Jews who during his trial in Jerusalem almost 20 years later downplayed his role at Wannsee supervised the work of the stenographer keeping the minutes.  Heydrich had intended to hold the conference on December 9 and then Hitler’s decision to declare war on the United States delayed the meeting for several weeks it must be emphasized what did not happen at Wannsee Although we still do not know its precise date Adolf Hitler’s order to murder every human being of Jewish descent across the European continent had already been enacted Systematic mass shooting of Soviet Jews had begun in the summer of 1941 with some 900,000 victims already murdered by the end of 1941 Operations started in early December 1941 at the Chelmno extermination center where the SS asphyxiated Polish Jews in specially-modified gas vans This sequence of monstrosities provided “lessons” for Heydrich about possible courses of action the representatives of party and state did not collectively plan a genocide they enjoyed far less agency than their titles might indicate Right at the outset Heydrich declared that the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”—a phrase that had been in use but had not yet acquired the horrid meaning we recognize—was the sole purview of the SS And he—Heydrich—was the plenipotentiary entrusted by Hermann Göring to resolve it The role of the ministries and organizations represented at the table was thus one of support Then Heydrich reviewed the history of the Third Reich’s chief policy with respect to Jews: compelling them to emigrate from Germany He reminded the attendees that Himmler had prohibited further Jewish emigration in the fall of 1941 Heydrich next spoke of “looming possibilities in the East” opened up by German military conquests “Emigration has now been replaced by evacuation of the Jews to the East.” Here in this one sentence Heydrich disclosed a new decisive—and genocidal—phase in the Nazi dictatorship’s prosecution of World War II as a race war the intent behind all this talk does not cease to terrify Heydrich declared that “11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question.” He showcased statistics which purported to capture the total number of Jews in countries occupied or invaded by Nazi Germany he exhibited information about Jewish communities in nations allied to the Reich like Fascist Italy and Marshal Antonescu’s Romania as well as satellite and collaborator regimes such as Admiral Horthy’s Hungary and Slovakia under Father Tiso The 55,000 Jews in European Turkey were also listed Heydrich even had the small Jewish population of Ireland in view This plan entailed combing Europe from West to East Heydrich prioritized the removal of German Other Jewish communities would be swept up later in this massive operation of racial expurgation Transit ghettos would function as temporary waystations before the victims were transported to their final had been decorated for their service in World War I or bore injuries or disabilities from combat in that conflict would be sent there So what did Heydrich reveal to his audience about the fate of the deported Jews Heydrich fleshed out what he intended by “looming possibilities in the East.” Jews were to do forced labor Separated by sex and massed in large labor units they would be compelled to build roads and work in other construction tasks that the future for European Jews was not a perpetuity of unfree labor where “a large number of them will undoubtedly drop out by natural reduction.” He warned that “suitable treatment” would have to be administered to the “most resistant segments” of the Jewish population The latter could not be permitted to form “germ cells” of an anti-Nazi opposition On the question of Jewish labor for Germany Heydrich had to confront the question of wartime exigencies Some Jewish workers had skills that were truly indispensable As Heydrich biographer Robert Gerwarth states “Even Heydrich could not ignore wartime economic needs at a time when Nazi Germany was confronted with manpower shortages on a dangerous scale He attempted to balance recognition of current labor scarcities with a desire to eliminate all Jews although his determination to kill all ‘resilient’ surviving Jewish laborers shows that he privileged ideology over economic concerns and military necessities.” Things became more contentious over what was to be done with Mischlinge the Nazi term for persons of mixed Aryan and Jewish descent codified by the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 Heydrich laid out guidelines for who among them was to be evacuated and who might be exempted He encountered some opposition that his proposals would needlessly complicate matters with these individuals many of whom had married full-blooded Aryans and had families with them The participants weighed sterilization as an option the Nazi dictatorship never definitively settled on a policy for Mischlinge—a bureaucratic failure which saved many lives the Wannsee Protocol refers to "different types of possible solutions" (verschiedene Arten der Lösungsmöglichkeiten) for the “Jewish Question.” Apparently Heydrich instructed Eichmann that no specifics of the methods of killing be given The transition from mass shooting to gassing was already underway The Wannsee Conference lasted only 90 minutes asked Eichmann to join them for brandy and a cigarette The three genocidists sat around the fireplace in the villa it was rare indeed to witness the austere Heydrich enjoying alcohol and a smoke Yet for the Chief of Security Police and the SD there was much to celebrate The gloating Heydrich realized that a system for destroying the entire Jewish people was settled who was responsible only to Hitler himself Eichmann would manage this “Final Solution.” The assassination of Heydrich by Czech resistance fighters less than six months later did not halt what had been arranged at Wannsee who started the push to preserve the villa as a site of remembrance First page of Copy 16 of the Wannsee Protocol-Marked “Secret Reich Matter.” Courtesy of the Museum and Educational Site-House of the Wannsee Conference Due to the cooperation of the party and state agencies and ministries with Heydrich and the SS genocide became a national project for Nazi Germany the Hitler regime became the exemplar of radical evil in modern history The names of the 15 men who attended the Wannsee Conference are reproduced here to ensure that they are never forgotten: SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich Reich Security Main Office SS Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller Reich Security Main Office SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann Reich Security Main Office Eberhard Schöngarth Security Police and SD SS Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann Race and Settlement Main Office Alfred Meyer Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories Georg Leibbrandt Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories SS Oberführer Gerhard Klopfer Nazi Party Chancellery Undersecretary of State Martin Luther Foreign Office Josef Bühler Office of the Government-General State Secretary Erich Neumann Plenipotentiary of the Office for the Four-Year Plan Permanent Secretary Wilhelm Kritzinger Reich Chancellery Wilhelm Stuckart Reich Ministry of the Interior Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich. New Haven: Yale University Press As the leader of Einsatzgruppe D Otto Ohlendorf was responsible for the murder of 90,000 Soviet Jews is ASU WWII Studies Consultant in the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.  Copy MLA Citation Copy APA Citation Copy Chicago Style Citation The members of the Institute for Social Research made vital contributions to a “culture of resistance” against Nazism The first international war crimes tribunal in history revealed the true extent of German atrocities and held some of the most prominent Nazis accountable for their crimes There is insufficient attention paid to the long history of the Roma within European culture The Red Army's liberation of Majdanek in July 1944 was one of the most significant moments in the history of World War II and the Holocaust and ultimately murdered thousands of gay men during its 12 years of rule the day after V-E Day was officially confirmed Eleanor Roosevelt reflects on the cautious mood The concept of genocide has fundamentally altered international law transforming the way we understand mass violence in the modern world.  Whether it played the role of the “Black Cat,” “Mad Cat,” or “Dumbo,” the PBY Catalina proved itself as one of the most instrumental amphibious planes as it struck fear in the Axis and provided hope for the Allies Regarded as the “most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy Lamarr was not only a famous Hollywood actress who sold millions in war bonds during World War II Her creations included a frequency-hopping radio communications device for Allied torpedoes during the war including ghettos and other sites of incarceration from imprisoning "enemies of the state" to serving as way stations in larger deportation schemes to murdering people in gas chambers.  the remains of Private First Class John Henry Newstrom a US Marine killed during the Battle of Peleliu in 1944 have been identified and will be returned home thanks to a joint recovery effort by the US and Japanese governments In her first My Day column after Franklin D Eleanor Roosevelt reflects on the sorrow following his passing and urges the world to unite in building a lasting Controlling the Ryukyu Islands would allow the Americans to finally sever Japan from its South Asian empire.  View Campus Map a group of bureaucrats of the Third Reich resolved to fully support the policies announced by Reinhard Heydrich the acceleration of the Nazi plan of extermination was arranged: the killing of eleven million European Jews By Alberto Amato During that time, fifteen people decided that eleven million human beings the Jewish population of Europe at that time toasted and returned to their prominent positions in Adolf Hitler's government When the doors of the mansion where the Wannsee Conference was held which sealed the fate of the Jews and He launched the so-called “final solution” devised by the Nazis one man was put in charge of drawing up the minutes of that meeting; his task ambiguous and enigmatic language the harsh proposals heard that freezing midday in a mansion in southern Berlin requisitioned from a Jewish family Heinrich Himmler's right-hand man and second in command of the powerful SS That secretary of minutes In charge of disguising the horror was Adolf Eichmann the Nazi who would be captured by the Israeli secret service in Argentina in May 1960 During the trial he was subjected to in Jerusalem Eichmann tried unsuccessfully to hide his role as a mere scribe in that conference between assassins in which there were no supporting characters he provided some key information to unravel part of the secret plot of that conference that was the starting point of the Holocaust Eichmann would be in charge of sending millions of Jews deported from Germany and the countries occupied by the Nazis to the death camps of Auschwitz the Wannsee Conference is seen in a different light in an attempt to downplay the enormous importance it had in the destiny of Europe The new eyes that look at that old episode affirm that the decision to eliminate the Jews from Europe had already been taken secretly And that more than half a million Jews had already been murdered in concentration camps scattered throughout Germany and occupied Poland since September 1939 The historical review of Wannsee also affirms that it was a matter of a meeting between bureaucrats in which Heydrich wanted to ensure that Hitler's ministers who would see their functions affected when mass deportations and genocide began, approved the Nazi plan of extermination But a non-statistical fact puts things in perspective to a large extent seventy-five percent of the victims of the Holocaust The Nazi persecution of the Jews had become state policy since Hitler took power on January 30 The National Socialist regime resorted to violence social and racial persecution to encouraging German Jews to leave the country “voluntarily” Austrian and Czech Jews had emigrated from their countries This was the first of the figures Heydrich laid out on the table at Wannsee when he opened the ninety-minute session Two months and ten days after Hitler became Chancellor on April 7 a Civil Service Restoration Act excluded German Jews from civil service and the legal profession; similar decrees prevented them from learning and practicing other professions The Nazi regime banned Jewish businesses from entering the economic market and from advertising in newspapers and magazines and cancelled all community contracts with the government Jewish businesses were boycotted and attacked leading to the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9 when businesses across Germany were looted the so-called Nuremberg Race Laws prohibited marriages between Jews and people of German origin; penalized extramarital relations between Jews and Germans of other faiths and made it illegal to hire German women under the age of forty-five to perform tasks in Jewish households The Reich Citizenship Law established that Only those with German blood could be considered citizens.: Jews lost their nationality along with other ethnic minority groups; the law also established who should be considered Jews and who should not By the time World War II began in September 1939 two hundred and fifty thousand of the four hundred and thirty-seven thousand Jews living in Germany had emigrated to the United States The people to be eliminated were divided into two groups of countries: A and B Group A included territories occupied or under Reich control neutral countries or those already at war with Germany The extermination of European Jews began as soon as the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939 the first extermination camps were also built and the killings continued in every country occupied by the Nazis and intensified in the summer of 1941 A detailed list of the number of Jews to be murdered in Europe which Heydrich brandished at the Wannsee Conference established that in the USSR alone the murders would reach five million human beings Hermann Göring authorized Heydrich to prepare a plan that would result in “a final solution to the Jewish question” in the European territories under German control and to coordinate the participation of all the ministries that would be involved in this plan of extermination Heydrich proposed sending the Jewish population of Eastern Europe and the USSR to Siberia to be used as slave labor or to be murdered This plan would be carried out immediately after the German victory over Stalin a victory that Hitler calculated would take months But the killing in the Soviet Union intensified; it was carried out by the Einzatsgrupen the “operations groups” that followed the army in the conquered areas only to round up and murder the Jews: Heydrich had decreed that Every Jewish male between fifteen and forty-five years old was to be shot. The Wannsee Conference was to have been held on December 9 a fierce Russian counteroffensive launched on December 5 near Moscow thwarted German plans for a quick victory in the East Hitler quickly understood that the war would be a long one the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor marked the entry of the United States into a world war that had changed forever Heydrich cancelled the invitations he had sent for Hitler's ministers to meet on December 9 at the offices of Interpol at 16 Am Kleinen Wannsee. Hitler decided that European Jews had to be exterminated immediately and not at the end of the war as he had planned.On December 18 the Führer discussed with Himmler the fate of the deportees from his famous “Wolf’s Lair” in Prussia avoiding mention of any explicit orders from Hitler only noting: “Jews must be destroyed like partisans.” Heydrich again sent out invitations for the meeting of Nazi leaders on Tuesday 20 January the following were invited: Gruppenführer Otto Hoffman head of the SS Race and Settlement Office; Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller one of the operational chiefs of the Gestapo; Dr Oberführer and commander of the Gestapo intelligence service; Dr permanent secretary of the Reich Chancellery; Dr commander of the Nazi intelligence service in Latvia; Dr Reich Undersecretary for the Occupied Eastern Territories; Dr State Secretary and Deputy Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories; Dr State Secretary and authority over occupied Poland; Dr Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice; Dr Brigadeführer and Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior; Erich Neumann Oberführer and Head of the Planning Office for the Four-Year Plan the economic measures programme headed by Göring; Friedrich Kritzinger Permanent Secretary of the Reich Chancellery; and Martin Luther Heydrich opened the meeting and spoke for an hour There would be no debate on any of his proposals: the powerful SS chief was reporting the decisions taken by Hitler (his name was never mentioned in the minutes) Using the meticulous notes prepared by the Eichmann Heydrich had divided into two groups of countries: A and B A included the territories occupied or under Reich control Both lists showed the number of people to be eliminated in each Heydrich outlined the different measures that Nazism had carried out since its rise to power and reported the decision to “evacuate them to the East” as a “temporary solution prior to the final solution.” He explained: “Under proper direction the Jews will be sent to the East to be used for work in an appropriate manner the Jews capable of labor will be brought to these areas to build roads; during which a large part will be eliminated by natural causes being undoubtedly part of the most resistant portion will have to be treated according to this condition since if released they would act as the seed of the Jewish renaissance.” Thus said the minutes written by Eichmann: The crimes were simulated under the euphemisms “in an appropriate manner” “they will be eliminated by natural causes” or “treated according to this condition” “the corresponding treatment” would be applied to them Hitler's heir apparent then also reported what had already been decided it was essential to specify who should be "evacuated." He then defined a category of Jews who would not be killed including veterans of the First World War who had been wounded or who had received the Iron Cross He then spoke of those who had only part Jewish blood or who were married to non-Jews a no-man's land that the Nuremberg Laws had deliberately left in a nebula He also spoke of "Mischlinge," a derogatory word that the Nazis used to define mixed-race people He said that there would be first-degree Jews with two Jewish grandparents who would be treated as such This rule would not apply to those who were married to a non-Jew and had a child in common were to be treated as Germans unless they were married to a first-degree Mischling or a “pure Jew,” or “had a special and undesirable racial appearance by which they were distinguished as Jews,” or were burdened with a “political record showing that they felt or acted like Jews.” Finally Heydrich spoke of gaining “practical experience in the process of the forthcoming final solution of the Jewish question,” which would include eleven million people and entailed a manhunt that would reach England and Ireland precise and meticulous because he sensed that there would be resistance to his proposal but a decision already taken by the highest authorities of the Reich He was wrong. Those summoned to the conference were enthusiastic and supported the extermination plan. head of the Central Office for Race and Settlement raised the legal and administrative difficulties of mixed marriages and proposed their compulsory dissolution or annulment and the wider use of sterilisation as an alternative who was implementing the economic programme laid down by the Four-Year Plan asked for leniency for Jewish workers in vital war industries: Heydrich promised him that they would not be executed fully supported the plan and called for executions to begin as soon as possible At the close of the conference, The Nazi leaders served cognac When he was tried in Jerusalem for his war crimes Eichmann recalled: “The gentlemen stood or sat together and talked about the subject in a language quite different from that which I had to use later for the reports of extermination.” Eichmann had received precise instructions from Heydrich that the minutes should not be verbatim and that nothing explicit should appear in them At his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 he recalled: “How should I say it Some exaggerated language and jargon had to be translated by me into office language he admitted that at Wannsee “it was agreed upon what the different methods of murder would be,” and that some expressions intended for Jews such as “appropriate treatment,” as transcribed in his minutes definite program of killing in extermination camps But the Wannsee Conference was a key step on the road to the terrible genocidal outcome" Heydrich did not live to see the results of his plan of extermination two Czech partisans trained in London by the British Special Operations Directorate who had parachuted into Czech territory from a Royal Air Force plane a Mercedes 320 with the license plate "SS 3" the Nazi leader tried to pursue his attackers with a pistol in his hand Nothing that was said and written at Wannsee would have been known if it had not been for a twist of fate the American prosecutor Robert Kempner found in the archives seized by the Allies from Hitler's Foreign Office a fifteen-page document with a disturbing stamp “Reich Confidential Document,” and an innocuous title: “Minutes of Meeting.” These were Eichmann's minutes of the Wannsee Conference. Thirty copies had been made and all had been destroyed by their owners at the end of the war Hitler's undersecretary for foreign affairs who had died of a heart attack in May 1945 the fall of the Reich and Germany's defeat Prosecutor Kempner used this copy as evidence at the Nuremberg trials that followed the Nazi trials in 1946 Adolf Hitler's name never appeared in any of the Wannsee minutes or in any other official or private document that spoke of his plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe Hitler spoke on the ninth anniversary of his rise to power in Germany Before a rapturous audience that filled the Berlin Sportpalast he said: "We are very clear that the war can only end either with the extermination of the Aryan peoples or with the disappearance of the Jews from Europe (...) 1939 in the Reichstag (and I try not to make hasty prophecies) that this war will not end as the Jews imagine with the extermination of the European Aryan peoples but that the result of this war will be the annihilation of Jewishness The old Jewish law will now be applied for the first time: an eye for an eye Source: INFOBAE It is somewhat disconcerting that Spain appears as one of the countries where the Nazis had planned to exterminate all the Jews when the Spanish fascists pretend to be beings on the same level as their former German Nazi comrades Franco almost cheated Hitler in the famous interview in Hendaye in a train carriage on the border of Spain with France when fascist Spain refused to participate in the Second World War due to the very precarious situation in which Spain was left after the Civil War because Hitler refused to give in to anything in return for the compensations that Franco asked of him according to his brother-in-law and Minister of Foreign Affairs a pro-Nazi Falangist who acted as a bridge between fascist Spain and Nazi Germany Hitler yawned while Franco asked him in return: French Morocco The Spanish fascists have permanent positions although it seems that Germany was at least close to reaching Gibraltar without the possibility of an impediment from the impoverished Spanish fascist army only the refusal of its friend Franco prevented it England also declassified documents from the Second World War on payments that Churchill authorized to the highest figures of the Franco government to influence the very fascist and very anti-Semitic Franco to desist from entering the Second World War alongside Nazi Germany This is apart from the fact that the Spanish fascists always say or have created a public image of not knowing anything about what their former criminal friends Perhaps in Spain nothing else would have happened than what happened in Northern Italy when Hitler rescued Mussolini from his prison in the Alps only to force him to take over this puppet state of Germany so that the Italians could serve as slave workers for the war needs of the Nazis while the same Italian fascists suffered hardship and hunger that was when many were deported to concentration camps when before email and website in this browser for the next time you comment This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Aurora Israel News in Spanish Minute by minute on all the events in Israel © Copyright 2024 Aurora Israel. All Rights Reserved. | Site Developed by Codetribe Israel | Contact Us several high-ranking Nazi officials convened in a lavish villa outside Berlin for what would later be known as the Wannsee Conference conventional wisdom was that in this infamous conference the Final Solution was decided upon Today we know that mass murder of Jews began well before the conference what makes the Wannsee conference such an important landmark in the history of the Holocaust Today on "On the Holocaust" we'll talk about the decisions at the conference about the “desk murderers” and about one crucial document that was uncovered by chance Co-editor of The Participants: The Men of the Wannsee Conference "Inside The Wannsee Conference" - Transcription: In a lavish villa on the coast of a beautiful lake in a well-off suburb of Berlin And on a chilly Tuesday morning in January 1942 they get together to orchestrate and coordinate a genocide.As far as our knowledge of the Nazi decision-making process goes not enough is known about the stages leading to the systematic murder of Jews during the Holocaust This is why the Wannsee Conference – named for the Wannsee suburb in which it took place – is so important For many years there was a misconception that the “Final Solution” was decided upon in Wannsee However  we know today that this was not the case Over a million Jews were murdered even before the conference had begun There was even one extermination camp that was already in operation before this meeting took place Historical research lacks a lot of documents from the Nazi era due to an elaborate effort by the Nazis to destroy evidence of the Holocaust in the latter stages of the Second World War the Wannsee conference gives us a rare glimpse into the decision-making process of the Nazi apparatus.Welcome to On the Holocaust a podcast from Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Today we're going to talk about the Wannsee Conference From the events leading up to this conference to the attendees and their fates – and the  story of how one copy of the  hidden protocol had survived Christoph Kreutzmueller: “I'm Christoph Kreutzmueller I've been working as a freelancer in the house of the Wannsee Conference since 1992 I started there guiding as a young student and I kind of started working in Wannsee proper like six and have been working mainly on photographs but on what the Germans refer to as Täterforschung then my focus is on the perpetrators of the Wannsee conference the men and this one woman who took part in this meeting at the Lake in January 1942.”Kreutzmueller is co-editor of a 2019 book called: “The Participants: The Men of the Wannsee Conference,” focusing on the Nazi officials present at the conference His book is the latest entry in the research dealing with the conference – and the attendees of this infamous meeting.From the moment the Nazi party took power in Germany in 1933 it started to revoke the rights of its Jewish citizens and subjects In 1938 came Kristallnacht – or the 1938 November pogrom where many Jews in Germany were humiliated their property razed or stolen – and Nazi paramilitaries and angry mobs murdered at least 91 Jews These policies and actions were aimed to force Jews to leave Germany– in order to achieve a Judenfrei Germany invaded Poland and quickly conquered most of the country The invasion put Nazi Germany in control of a large Jewish population over three million and highlighted the so-called "Jewish question": What to do with the Jews in the growing Nazi empire The Nazi failure to push Jews out of the Reich conviced the Nazi regime to look for other solutions.Right after the invasion of Poland Reinhard Heydrich outlined several guiding principles for the persecution of Jews Heydrich was a crucial figure in the Nazi regime director of the Reich Security Main Office head of the Gestapo – and later the acting Head of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Heydrich led an effort to concentrate the Jews in specific locations the German plan was to deport the Jewish population from Third Reich territories The first ghettos – Piotrków Trybunalski and Radomsko – were established in late 1939 in occupied Poland Polish Jews were deported into confined sections of towns or cities Forced labor camps were also formed– where Jews slaved in dehumanizing conditions.At this point in time The Nazi regime displayed brutality and cruelty to its Jewish subjects – and significantly degraded their well-being Even without a formal decision to systematically murder Jews Nazi policies led to severe living conditions in both ghettos and camps brought in June 1941 a new phase of the German policy towards the Jews: mass killing The SS operated the Einsatzgruppen (literally deployment groups) – special death squads tasked with "cleaning” – as the Nazis saw it – the occupied parts of the Soviet Union from Jews Communists and other "unwanted" persons.The Einsatzgruppen followed the Wehrmacht and brutally executed people in the newly-conquered territories Using rifles and handguns and aided by other police and military units they would execute Jews in newly-acquired territories mass killing of Jews began during the summer of 1941 – without any decree from Berlin several plans were formed to murder Jews in the Warthegau and the General Government areas These practices were already well in place by January 1942 – when the Wannsee Conference took place.The main agenda of the conference was to organize the mass murder of the Jews to create a unified policy on the issue of the extermination and to assert the leadership of Heydrich over the issue of the extermination: Christoph Kreutzmueller: “The people who came wanted to come accepted Heydrich in his acclaimed position to be in charge of organizing the mass murder of the Jews and accepted to discuss the murder of the Jews under Heydrich’s leadership which is actually the main point of the conference accepting the topic and then meeting up to discuss the loose ends - how to organize it best.”The Wannsee conference highlights a certain aspect of the Holocaust – one that is often overlooked; that of the role of the “desk murderers” - a term coined by Hannah Arendt that describes the Nazi bureaucrats that helped plan and organize the Holocaust from behind their desks.Erich Neumann was one such bureaucrat He was 49 years old when he was invited to Wannsee Born in 1892 to a wealthy family – he fought in the First World War and was injured After studying economics and law – Neumann found his true passion in bureaucracy Christoph Kreutzmueller: "Erich Neumann who actually worked in the Prussian Ministry for Finance and later on economics A hardworking man described as colorless by many So it's one of those people who you don't see but he always stays in the office very long and works very hard had health issues".Neumann's talents were soon discovered by one of the most powerful Nazi leaders: Herman Göring Göring was charged with streamlining Germany's economy For this particular task – he needed Neumann Christoph Kreutzmueller: "[He was]basically adopted by Herman Göring the second man in the state who needed someone like him who would translate those grandiose things Göring said and wanted into bureaucracy And for that he was rewarded with the office of State Secretary Neumann would meet many of the participants on many occasions which we think and I would think it's the pre-runner to the Wannsee conference he invited 100 people to discuss what happened in the pogroms and how to get out of the economic devastation that the programs did discussing what to do with the Jewish question It’s in this conference where Heydrich gets the office of organizing the forced immigration and he then transfers the organization of that to Eichmann So that's where Neumann is."Neumann was not directly involved with the planned killing of Jews – but had partial responsibility for forced labor camps Christoph Kreutzmueller: "He would meet Heydrich later at quite a few occasions and would organize the slave labor the slave labor of the Jews who weren't yet deported And in the conference to which he is invited as a representative of Herman Göring So he has got special status." This brings us back to January 20th 1942 – and to that particular villa on the outskirts of Berlin As we said the true aim of the Wannsee Conference was to organize the extermination and deal with all the “small details” surrounding the genocide.This cruel endeavor – and the entire Final Solution – would not have been possible without the consenting approval and support of the German bureaucracy Neumann – in his capacity as a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Nazi regime – played a significant role in this streamlining effort Christoph Kreutzmueller: "The conference is not on whether or not to do it it's not the top echelons of the Nazi elite meeting They meet and quietly discuss and organize bureaucratically The conference was actually invited to twice because Heydrich asked for a conference to happen on 9th ofDecember 1941 and then had to postpone the meeting to the 20th of January And the people were invited to discuss the final solution and being what they were In the higher echelons of the Nazi state and participating in the bureaucratic or the physical side of mass murder already and they knew that they would be discussing the mass murder of the Jews And it might be worth noting that it's an open invitation like the Secretary of State of the Ministry for Propaganda did not come The people who came wanted to come."We should also note that this conference's perceived historical importance for decades  does not necessarily mean it was considered important at the time Christoph Kreutzmueller: "And that is the thing which makes the conference you think like something spectacular happens And the secretary participating Ingeburg Werlemann remembered in 1962 that she found it difficult to take the notes because the people would talk on top of each other So you don't have to imagine this conference to be kind of state-ordered who knew each other and who kind of sit down “things” is the murder they sorting and bureaucratically speaking It's what Christopher Browning would have referred to as “ordinary men” meeting They enjoy the beauty of the lake in winter They probably enjoyed the taste of a good Cognac robbed from France and shared our idea of beauty So they're not those brutal Hollywood like beasts but they are more mild-mannered bureaucrats then head of the Office of Jewish Affairs at the Reich Main Security Office This protocol listed the Jewish population in every European country This particular list also indicates the extermination process up to that point Estonia was labelled "free of Jews" in Eichmann's list – meaning the Nazis deported or killed every known Jew in Estonia.While the Nazi officials debated the "small details" of the planned extermination of the Jews – Erich Neumann worked to protect the interests of his ministry He was mainly pushing for delaying the deportation of the Jewish slaves working in the forced labor camps under his responsibility Christoph Kreutzmueller: "He represents basically the Super Ministry for Economics there are so many Jews working as slave labors and we need them He's kind of… He wants to offer something towards the process That is agreed upon".Other issues that were dealt with in Wannsee were the diplomatic and legal difficulties of the Holocaust – or rather the lack of such diplomatic and legal difficulties According to the protocol of the conference the delegates of the Foreign Ministry did not foresee any real legal objections to their plans from the courts in Germany – or from the rest of the world They also deal with the specifics of their theory of scientific racism: Christoph Kreutzmueller: "And then there's a lengthy and long debate on the question whom to murder they're discussing the racist definition of murder So how many grandparents need to be Jewish in order to regard someone as being Jewish in order to murder So far they had murdered along the lines of the so-called Nuremberg laws and the Nuremberg laws stated someone is Jewish if he or she has got three or four Jewish grandparents and if he or she has got two Jewish grandparents shall we not murder everyone with two and maybe even everyone with one Jewish grandparent And they're using those terms I'm not going to repeat After dealing with other issues and tying up all the bureaucratic loose ends – the conference was over The Nazi attendees left several small details and issues  to be dealt with later on after the war would be won by Nazi Germany Without pathos or a special sense of self-importance – their meeting was done Christoph Kreutzmueller: "And that is the 90 minutes basically In the end they quickly debate where and how to murder And the second in charge of these German civil administration in occupied Poland and the second breakfast promised in the invitation came and they stood together for a bit longer discussing private or whatever matters And then they went home or actually went back to work in the ministries on this rather normal Tuesday."One million Jews were murdered before the Wannsee conference – and many more were murdered after it The extermination process moved gradually from field executions to mass murders in extermination camps – especially by gassing Murder by gas vans actually began prior to the conference as well – in the Chelmno camp in Poland he was killed mere months after the conference – in a daring operation organized by underground operatives of the Czechoslovak underground Germany led a special operation – later named Operation Reinhard after Heydrich.In Operation Reinhard three extermination camps were established to murder Jews mainly from the General Government: Treblinka Jews were deported to these camps – where they were killed in special gas chambers built with this horrible intention Some 1,700,000 Jews were murdered in the camps of Operation Reinhard.In Auschwitz-Birkenau perhaps the best known concentration and extermination camp complex about 1,100,000 Jews from all across Europe were murdered over the course of the war..In the meanwhile Erich Neumann's position in the Nazi apparatus deteriorated The gray bureaucrat – and his mentor Göring – were out of favor with Adolf Hitler Christoph Kreutzmueller: "Erich Neumann decides to quit his job in 1943 And I think this is important because it does tell you They are not forced to help murdering Jews They are there because they want to be there.”The European Theatre of World War II ended in May 1945 – with the surrender of Nazi Germany the exact nature of the Holocaust was revealed – to the horror of the world The fate of the high-ranking Nazi leadership was determined during the last months of the war – when several committed suicide or were killed – and in the subsequent Nuremberg trials Herman Göring was the highest-ranking Nazi captured alive by the Allies – but he committed suicide in prison before his death sentence was executed.For the great majority of the lower levels of the Nazi apparatus – including most of the participants at the Conference - full justice was never served Christoph Kreutzmueller: "Quite a few of them actually died in the war He died in the last days of the fighting of the Battle of Berlin And actually Martin Luther from the Foreign Ministry he actually died shortly after liberation of the concentration camp Saxonhousen So there's quite a few who died in the war Bühler and Schöngarth shortly after the war nor Schöngarth were actually sentenced because of their participation in Wannsee.Two other participants - Wilhelm Stuckart and Otto Hofmann - were sentenced to under 4 years and 25 years respectively Hoffman was released after serving just 6 years in prison.The Wannsee conference was actually used by at least one of the participants in their legal defense after the war One example was Eichmann – during his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 Christoph Kreutzmueller: "Eichmann in Jerusalem was put to trial He doesn't get through because the court in Jerusalem knows better But that's why he introduces Wannsee in order to say I was only the smallest ranking man in this conference and I couldn't do anything I actually only participated in this minor conference in order to prevent Heydrich and Eichmann from doing any worse this was accepted because the perpetrators were especially the bureaucratic perpetrators Erich Neumann was briefly arrested – but was never put to trial and was never imprisoned or punished Christoph Kreutzmueller: "He is interviewed in preparation to the international military tribunal in Nuremberg And you can really see that he doesn't see what he did wrong And Kempner at one point really explodes and tells him And he never sees what he might have done wrong and dies in 1951 without ever having been put to justice Complaining that he had been imprisoned in Nuremberg never publicly admitting what he actually did was wrong was murder".The protocol of the Wannsee conference was printed in 30 copies – and given to various Nazi figures 29 of these copies were destroyed – in an attempt to hide the participants' involvement in the Holocaust Only one copy survived – and helped historians study the importance of the conference Christoph Kreutzmueller: "Martin Luther was sent to a concentration camp because he tried to get rid of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Foreign Affairs But because of Luther being where he was in Sachsenhausen So one of the reasons why we know about this conference why this conference has become so important in our knowledge is the fact that the one person who received the copy of this protocol actually died in a concentration camp and couldn't burn his files And we have to presume that they were burned at the end of the war by the perpetrators not wishing to leave any incriminating material behind a file called "Final a Solution of the Jewish Question" is one of the first files to be burned We all know it's not the point where it was decided to murder but we don't quite know when this decision happened We don't have a protocol of this."The protocol of the conference showed the support of the German bureaucracy for the extermination process played a significant role in enabling the mass murder of Jews were responsible for orchestrating the Final Solution – where others had other responsibilities – but had knowingly aided the extermination process Christoph Kreutzmueller: A lot of people have seen Kenneth Branagh in his film conspiracy And then you think Heydrich is the Richard the Second character But I think we have to see a lot of the participants who all are there representing the German administration representing so many people who made lists who helped making this mass murder of the Jews so brutally And that's what Wannsee stands for in my eyes." If you'd like to learn more about the Holocaust from Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Our program is produced by Jonathan Clapsaddle This episode was written by Agam Kedem Levi and edited by Dor Shafir The Yad Vashem website had recently undergone a major upgrade The page you are looking for has apparently been moved We are therefore redirecting you to what we hope will be a useful landing page For any questions/clarifications/problems, please contact: webmaster@yadvashem.org.il Eighty years ago on January 20, 1942, the infamous Wannsee Conference took place in a large lakeside three-story mansion in suburban Berlin. Fifteen Nazi German leaders attended the meeting that coordinated plans to "orderly execute" ---murder--- millions of Jews during World War II. the emigration plan [for Jews to leave Europe for other lands and nations] has been replaced with deportation of the Jews to the East The Nazis often employed euphemistic phrases to conceal the true sinister meaning of their policies "Deportation… to the East" meant sending Jews---men and children--- in locked overcrowded filthy railroad boxcars to German death camps located inside occupied Poland was "to make all the necessary preparations for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question in the German sphere of influence in Europe." "Final Solution" was repeatedly used at Wannsee to describe the mass murder of millions in order to solve the alleged "Jewish Question." were chauffeur driven to the meeting in their official limousines Heydrich was a bit late in arriving because his private airplane arriving from Prague was delayed by inclement winter weather the fourteen officials representing both the Nazi Party and the German State were served rare vintage cognac and consumed an elegant buffet luncheon and the male bonhomie that frequently occurred at a high-level meeting of corporate decision-making executives the Wannsee agenda was to affirm the go-ahead for the systematic killing of an entire people: genocide But the jocular tone quickly ended once Heydrich triumphantly strode into the first-floor meeting site He was a brutal military bureaucrat who frightened and browbeat other high-ranking officials with his cold bearing and ruthless actions He reported only to SS leader Heinrich Himmler and Heydrich was known to be a personal favorite of Hitler he was the hated Nazi ruler of occupied Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich was a vicious antisemite who wanted every Jew in the world dead He assigned the specifics of this obscene task to Eichmann the trusted and efficient SS specialist on all things Jewish Heydrich called Eichmann his "shipping agent." At Wannsee Heydrich spoke for an hour and distributed a document listing eleven million Jews in Nazi occupied Europe as well as those living in neutral countries including Sweden Heydrich's intention was clear: Nazi Germany planned to kill every Jew under its present or future control Although Heydrich spoke to the group in euphemistic language everyone knew exactly what he meant when he said: "…Jews should be brought…to the East for labor utilization…a large part will fall away [die] through natural reduction…the toughest element will have to be dealt with accordingly since it represents a natural selection…which is to be regarded as a germ cell of a new Jewish development." would provide "under our authority direct operations…" in murdering millions of people as efficiently as possible Heydrich and other high-ranking Nazis were aware that time was not on their side because the vaunted June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union was stalled The Red Army's strong resistance meant a quick conquest of the USSR was not possible And the December 1941 entry of the United States into the war meant that Britain had gained a powerful ally in its battle with Nazi Germany Heydrich was ebullient when the Wannsee Conference ended because he and his SS cohorts had been given free rein to destroy the Jewish people There was some discussion about the status of Jews married to non-Jews and the offspring of such marriages But ultimate decisions regarding their fate were left unanswered The Wannsee Conference lasted about ninety minutes but changed world history Many of the participants were tried as war criminals following Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 In May 1942 - four months after Wannsee - Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in Prague by two Czech resistance fighters They used bombs and grenades to assassinate the SS leader A final note: today the Wannsee mansion is a Holocaust museum and memorial In 1999 I visited the building where mass murder was carefully planned and approved Rabbi A. James Rudin (he/him) is the former head of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs and author of seven books We don’t know exactly when Hitler issued orders initiating the direct extermination of Jews – a stage of the industrial genocide involving the killing of the Jewish population in extermination camps the head of the Reich Main Security Office – headquarters of the Nazi repression apparatus within the SS – received an order from Hermann Göring (at that time the Marshal of the Reich and head of the German war economy) to prepare the "Final Folution to the Jewish Question" the decision had already been made to exterminate the Jews who were living in Soviet territory implemented the plan by shooting hundreds of thousands of Jews and people deemed “communists” in places like Babi Yar there was a change in the German policy towards Jews and forced labour – indirect extermination – began to be replaced by systematic mass murders Hitler's key order was most likely given orally. This was the practice of decision making by the “leader” who, moreover, “in many cases did not invent and did not suggest anti-Jewish steps and more important elements of the extermination program, but only accepted the plans of others”[1] Among the documents related to mass crimes Hitler's signature appears only on the autumn 1939 order on the commencement of Operation T4 – the extermination of the disabled and mentally ill the dictator was careful not to leave any traces of his acceptance of the plans of the crime it made the prosecution of the Nazis more difficult and enabled the so-called Holocaust deniers question the scale of the crimes and the role of Hitler In 1997, the German historian Christian Gerlach announced that, according to his research, Hitler made a decision to start murdering Jews in extermination camps on December 12, 1941 [2] This is evidenced by the coincidence of the dates of the meetings of the Nazi leaders in December 1941 and the postponement of the Wannsee conference itself from December 9 in a speech in front of 50 of the most important members of the NSDAP Regarding the Jewish Question, the Führer is determined to be clear about the matter. He forebode the Jews that if they sparked a world war again, they would experience their own destruction. It wasn't phraseology. The world war is here and the extermination of Jewry must become its indispensable consequence. [3] This speech, Gerlach points out, set the “fundamental direction” in the Reich's policy towards Jews [4] announced to the members of his cabinet that in January there would be a “great conference” in Berlin regarding “deportation to the east”: We cannot shoot those 3.5 million Jews, we cannot poison them, but we will be able to undertake measures that will somehow bring some results in the process of extermination, and this is within the framework of activities that will be discussed by the Reich authorities.[5]  the hierarchy of offices in the Reich was complicated and the institutions often had similar competences historians who tried to deal with this chaos created two schools of interpretation of the Holocaust Intentionalists believed that the Germans had prepared and carried out a meticulous plan to exterminate the Jews Functionalists were of the opinion that the genocide of the Jews was to a greater extent the result of the improvisation of lower and middle-ranking officers – their ideas were only picked up by their superiors The assessment of both positions is made difficult by the aforementioned lack of key orders in writing historians for a long time had trouble establishing the real importance of the January 1942 conference hundreds of thousands of Jews had already died head of the Gestapo office for Jewish affairs organised a meeting in a villa in the Wannsee district of Berlin on January 20 the main point was that the plan of extermination would cover the entirety of occupied Europe The residence at Am Großen Wannsee 56/58 Street The building then belonged to Friedrich Minoux The villa was bought by the SS and converted into a guest house for high-ranking officers of the Nazi services including commanders of the Einsatzgruppen The meeting was attended by 15 German government officers as well as members of the SS and the police: The conference was held to define the principles of cooperation between all ministries and state services in achieving the goal which was called the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” [7] The meeting was not attended by representatives of the Wehrmacht and German railways as they had already come to detailed agreements with the head of the SS This fact is in favour of the functionalist theory the Germans began the extermination of Jews transported from the Reich to the ghettos of Central and Eastern Europe – this is an argument confirming the intentionalists' theses As Gerlach writes, “the conference in Wannsee was called primarily so that state and party organs could gain clarity about the future way of ‘treating’ German Jews, and at the same time create a legal basis for the treatment of West European Jews, including establishing a definition of a Jew and deciding who it includes”[15] The discussion led to the implementation of the program of extermination of Jews not only in the eastern territories occupied by the Reich with the involvement of previously unknown measures about 1.2 million Jews were murdered in these three camps as well as at Majdanek in Lublin Auschwitz also became the extermination center for Jews from all over Europe the later coordinator of the "Final Solution" was tried and executed for participating in the planning of genocide on a European scale The trial was made possible by the capture of Eichmann by Israeli agents in Argentina and his transfer to Israel The fate of the other participants was as follows: the villa houses a museum with a permanent exhibition called “The Wannsee Meeting and the Murder of the European Jews” [1] Christian Gerlach Los Żydów niemieckich a polityczna decyzja Hitlera o wymordowaniu wszystkich Żydów Europy [Wannsee Conference The fate of German Jews and Hitler's political decision to murder all the Jews of Europe] „Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego” [Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute] no 185-186 [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid. [4] See: Ibid. [5] See: Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Paweł Szapiro, Am Grossen Wannsee, konferencja [Wannsee Conference], Polski Słownik Judaistyczny [Polish Judaic Dictionary] https://delet.jhi.pl/pl/psj?articleId=14832 [8] See: Hannah Arendt Eichmann w Jerozolimie [Eichmann in Jerusalem] [9] Ibid [10] C [11] Ibid. [12] Ibid. [13] Andrzej Żbikowski, Geneza i przebieg Akcji Reinhard [Genesis and course of Operation Reinhard], https://www.jhi.pl/artykuly/geneza-i-przebieg-akcji-reinhardt,301 [14] H [15] C [16] Ibid [17] P Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker On 20 January 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazis gathered in a villa on the Wannsee, a large lake in a suburb of Berlin. At this conference, they discussed the planned murder of eleven million European Jews. For a while, the Nazis had thought that they could force the Jews to emigrate to other countries, but this was no longer an option because of the war. Instead, the Jews were to be 'evacuated' to the east. A large proportion was expected to fall away due to 'natural reduction'. The remaining Jews would receive 'appropriate treatment'. The participants in the conference hid their real intentions behind official language. These words come from the minutes of the conference, which were preserved. What they say, is that the Nazis were organising a genocide. ‘Evacuation' equalled deportation to concentration and extermination camps, and the 'appropriate treatment' meant 'murder'. Hitler had already decided that all European Jews must be murdered. From July 1941 onwards, German special units (Einsatzgruppen) had been active in the Soviet Union to kill Jews. And since the spring of 1941, there had been executions in occupied Yugoslavia. By early 1942, the Nazis had already murdered more than a million Jews. Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam The coded language of the secret conference never explicitly mentioned the complete destruction of an entire people, but conversed about this policy in the language of bureaucracy. That decision, as has been pointed out by communications expert Marshall Rosenberg served to create a situation in which committing genocide seemed like standard policy rather than a choice made by any individual while the surviving minutes of the meeting were heavily edited they still hint at the destruction of the Jewish people on the European continent The conference did hold significant importance; it provided a centralized plan of action to rid the continent of its Jewish population and crystalized that plan in Nazi government policy. Several ideas were suggested beforehand – mass deportations (including to the island of Madagascar) mass sterilization and other gruesome ideas The “Final Solution” was to send Jewish people to ghettos and camps in Poland The Wannsee Conference served as an opportunity for the Nazi regime to coordinate that process across various departments and divisions The Wannsee Conference merely served the function of consolidating and streamlining the entire process Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Entire extermination camps were already under construction, including Belzec, one of the most infamous killing centers of the war. Even prior to the outbreak of war, a policy of persecution of Jews and other “non-desirables” existed in Nazi-controlled Germany. Many historians consider Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass state-sponsored racial and religious isolation sought to eliminate Jews from German society The Nuremberg Laws were one of the most obvious examples of this state-sponsored racism these anti-Semitic policies forbade relationships between Jews and Germans denied Jews the right to citizenship and established racial categories in order to disenfranchise Jews and deprive them of political and civic rights who engaged in murder because of psychological and social conditioning the infrastructure of death was already beginning to be constructed Railroads leading infamous death camps such as Auschwitz were built who would later be the highest-ranked Nazi leader to be tried at Nuremberg the so-called main architect of the Holocaust: A plan was to be devised to account for the total solution of the Jewish question By this then, however, the meeting was nothing more than a technicality. The framework of genocide was already in place, and the conference served as a way to centralize the mechanism and “ensure the smooth flow of deportations.” an estimated six million Jews—and millions of other victims such as Romanis homosexuals and others—lay dead in the wake of the genocide Though the Wannsee Conference was an important moment in that deadly process Contact us at letters@time.com Cookies allow us to understand how you use this site and improve your experience. Our detailed Cookie Policy can be found here By continuing to use this website you accept our use of cookies Mandatory cookies help make this website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website Our website cannot function properly without these cookies Statistic cookies help us understand how visitors interact with this website for example seeing which pages are most popular This information is collected anonymously and helps us improve the site by making the most sought after information easy to find Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites allowing the display of ads that are relevant and engaging for the visitor Whilst we do not display any advertising on the WJC website allowing marketing cooking may allow other sites to see that you have visited our site (c) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum While the call to exterminate European Jewry was never explicitly mentioned at the Wannsee Conference, the intent of the conference was exceedingly obvious to the highly educated German officials, and within a few months, the Nazis installed the first poison-gas chambers in Poland.  Heydrich also indicated that in total, approximately 11,000,000 Jews from Axis-controlled Europe, the United Kingdom, and the neutral nations (Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and European Turkey) would become victims of the Final Solution.  Throughout the Final Solution, Nazi German authorities and their collaborators killed some six million Jews—approximately two-thirds of the Jews living in Europe in 1939—by gassing, shooting, and starvation, all while subjecting them to inhumane living conditions.   senior Nazi officials met at a Berlin villa to discuss the "final solution" to "the Jewish question." Deportations to ghettos and concentration camps had already begun but the Wannsee Conference coordinated plans for the systematic murder of European Jews I had the privilege of spending the week in Berlin I was meant to go with a friend until my dad arrived several days later a family emergency rendered the trip a solo venture for a short while Touring the streets of Germany without someone to share in reflection about what I was seeing and learning felt daunting considering I knew the trip was bound to stir up strong emotions the memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and strolling under the Brandenburg Gate where book-burning celebrations raged in grueling euphoria I resorted to social media to express feelings a fellow student of Jewish and European history arrived for perhaps the most dramatic moment of the trip giving way to the most significant moment of contemplation The two of us toured the beautiful grounds of Wannsee a picturesque lakefront dotted with impressive estates just outside the city But the shores are known mostly for one meeting on one day in particular fourteen members of the Nazi high command gathered in the grand villa Ann Großen to meticulously organize the Final Solution to the Jewish Question: no longer disenfranchisement and deportation peering over the official documents collected from the site that detailed which local authorities in Nazi-occupied Europe needed to cooperate to facilitate the floodgates to Auschwitz We listened to the speeches from Goebbels and Goering and deeply internalized the juxtaposition of such serene postcard-like views with perhaps the most inhuman ideas to ever spring from humanity I concluded the tour by wrapping an Israeli flag around my shoulders outside the gates feeling a profound sense of pride in the Jewish peoples’ national resilience in the face of such horrors As my dad and I sat in silence on a bench waiting to return to Berlin Spilling from its doors came handsome men and women in tuxedos and gowns “Is this the right stop to go back into town?” My dad asked we are heading to a wedding.” We then turned to see the main event: the Wasserapartnent Wannsee described in English as a “cozy houseboat hotel,” where fellow smartly dressed chatters queued with cocktails in hand classical music filled the air of the front garden walked from where perhaps their grandparents’ death was planned to the most minute detail My dad and I looked at each other utterly gob smacked in the way it happens when you are confronted with something you instantly recognize as significant which I in the moment could only concur with in somewhat of a nervous giggle as my dad and I toured the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just north of Berlin and later the super hip and enjoyable flea market in Mauerpark and boom boxes blared in celebration of life freedom was torn away from thousands of Jews and political prisoners of the Nazi regime but here in Mauerpark there was an endless supply of it It was like the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe consisting of thousands of gray slabs of concrete in the epicenter of the city wedged between commutes and field trips and bar crawls Within the slabs there is an eerie silence tourists pose and plan the next techno club to hit While watching a beaming dancer cartwheel and split on the freshly mowed grass I suddenly began to refine what I had been thinking throughout my time in Berlin Considering the country does a great deal to memorialize its crimes to honor those affected and to educate its children it would be an impossible expectation to find the descendants of Nazis perpetually remorseful so much so that life in a European capital ceases to carry on or plaques on the street in recognition of deported Jews or newly renovated Jewish historical sites was enough to assuage easily the most traumatic event in world history those Jewish historical sites still need to be protected by both on-duty police officers and an endless procession of metal detectors and pat-downs If one acknowledges that blood is thicker than water without holding all Germans responsible for the crimes of the ancestors must also acknowledge that there are still bloodstains on the cobblestone streets of Berlin I took a moment to express some concluding thoughts online:    I have been angry every day for the past decade about all that and I don’t have much grievance left to spare At the catch-22 of thousands of international tourists spending thousands of euros on transportation to and from the camps on food and drink between depressing ventures on SIM cards so they can document how they are feeling in the face of the destruction of European Jewry or Pico-Robertson or even to one of Germany’s operating synagogues how Jews continue to live out their stories intended to impose warm feelings of relief that at least you’re never going to kill anyone for being different Regardless of how remorseful government officials are there are still old folks here and dearly departed relatives buried under our feet who knew what was happening outside their well-tailored lawns I don’t want to hear children laughing here I don’t want to see gays in leather on their way to the next conquest I don’t want to regard history as a chapter in a textbook rather than a still festering open wound is a pile of graves where even the most enlightened of people dance.”   The only regret I have during my trip to Berlin was not having the time to connect with the living breathing Jewish community in the former Reich the strongest vanguard against Germany standing only as a memorial to what once was I did not spend a Shabbat dinner with them I didn’t bow my head in a synagogue or sing in old Yiddish tunes I didn’t take my own advice in honoring how Jews lived rather than just how they died I am quite embarrassed over this lack of judgment and therefore I have decided that should I return to this land of such unspeakable horror I will place breaking bread with fellow Jews at much higher significance than touring a camp or reading about Nazis Blake Flayton is the New Media Director and Columnist for the Jewish Journal elections in the 39th World Zionist Congress nears conclusion—voting closes May 4—American Zionist Movement (AZM) Executive Director Herbert Block said there were few barriers of entry to voting in what Jewish leaders are describing as a consequential election We are here today because Jewish fathers and mothers wanted more than happiness from their children The bipartisan group includes Los Angeles representatives Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Ted Lieu (D-West LA) Speaking ill of someone once most likely leads to a second time Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. 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For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice The display brings people’s stories forward that would have otherwise been silenced and there is lots to be learned from them said Glenn Mitoma The opening follows the Beyond Duty exhibit that highlighted diplomats who risked their careers and their lives to help Jewish peoples to safety “People were aware of one thing… They will not come back.” the curator of the traveling exhibition “The Wannsee Conference and the persecution and murder of the European Jews” that opened Monday March 2 at the Thomas J He was referring to the countless people who watched their neighbors be dragged away from their homes at all times of the day after the Wannsee Conference The conference took place in Berlin on January 20 where 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German Government officials gathered to discuss what they called the “Final Solution” of the Jewish civilians It was simply code for the mass execution of millions of innocent people Hass explained to the 40 people in attendance The 13 Protocols from the conference can be seen hanging on the walls of the Dodd Center The language was kept vague with terms like “suitable treatment” and “resettlement” used in place of “death” to gain cooperation of German citizens and even foreign police forces That was the excuse of many people after the war,” Hass explained The Dodd Center is proud to host the exhibit with the efforts of Lisa Workmeister Rozas UConn’s Bachelors of Social Work (BSW) Program Director Werkmeister teaches a course called Germany Travel Study: Implications of the Holocaust for Social Worker Practitioners The three German and two UConn students in the program said they felt fortunate to be able to attend the opening and learn different perspectives about the Holocaust throughout their time in the program The program offers American and German students a chance to exchange perspectives on their history and times of oppression said Nina Tillenburg a Masters student from the University of Merseburg who is part of the Germany Travel Study program “There’s always a possibility to learn more from other cultures and how they deal with what the culture’s all about So I think it’s important to talk about it and get a new perspective out of it,” Tillenburg said said she felt the collaboration between schools and countries is an important opportunity for learning and exchanging ideas “I’m looking forward to gaining a broader perspective of what other countries do in regards to social work especially after they have a history of human rights abuses It’s just really fascinating,” Duszlak said The exhibit opened to the public on March 2 2020 and will remain on display at the Dodd Center through April 29 Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and the School of Social Work Does that mean special treatment for *all* European Jews Reinhard Heydrich: Listen now, but then forget it immediately. That's exactly right. Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb HistoryNet You know the meeting—management convened it to present some new undertaking and solicit every body’s input anyway; the more experienced know the score But the boss has clout enough to cram his agenda down everyone’s throats Such cramming occurs in all walks of life: governmental except that the Schutzstafel—the SS—organized the conclave whose agenda was the destruction of Europe’s 11 million Jews Conspiracy re-creates the Wannsee Conference in nearly real time showing the mansion in which the gathering took place in a fly over shot and reproducing the building’s interior for the set Writer Loring Mandel based his script on the “Wannsee Protocol”—the meeting’s top-secret minutes The original document is deliberately vague; its language gives no hint that the subject is mass murder Nor does the protocol paint the conference as anything less than wholly harmonious But anyone who has watched bureaucrats battle over turf knows differently and a close reading of the minutes suggests fault lines and objections The filmmakers have fleshed out these intimations to deliver a riveting drama that takes place almost entirely around a large conference table opens with SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann (Stanley Tucci) fussing over touches for the conference that include excellent wines representatives of some of Nazi Germany’s most powerful men introduce themselves to one another and the viewer Two look glum: Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (David Trelfall) is among Hitler’s legal advisers; and Wilhelm Stuckart (Colin Firth) chief architect of the Nuremberg Laws that stripped German Jews of their civil rights defining “Jew” using formulas of Stuckart’s devising Kritzinger and Stuckart believe their offices resolved the “Jewish question.” Fretting that the SS is about to hijack that “question” and impose its own solution Last to appear is the man who called the meeting SS Obergruppenführer Rein hard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh) Heydrich presides with the jaunty air of a man assured that he is going places He quotes a directive from Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring assigning Heydrich to find “a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe,” and also stipulating that relevant agencies “cooperate” with this endeavor Kritzinger instantly objects; the Chancellery He fruitlessly tries to gain a hearing but Heydrich smoothly and stubbornly plows on Heydrich explains that Nazi policy has been forcing Jews to leave Germany voluntarily or to “emigrate” involuntarily to German-instituted ghettoes in Polish cities Jews under Nazi control now number several million with five million to be added as the con quest of the Soviet Union proceeds “We are standing still in Russia; the Americans have joined the war Both events are a further drain on our military Emigration is over.” The new policy is “evacuation,” a term made clear as he fields queries “I have the real feeling I ‘evacuated 30,000 Jews already by shooting them at Riga,” an SS major observes “That is contrary to what the Chancellery has been told I have directly been assured!” the Chancellery’s man says But to systematically annihilate all the Jews of Europe That possibility has personally been denied to me by the Führer.” “And it will continue to be,” Heydrich replies locking eyes with Kritzinger to let his message sink in when he sees that Heydrich is going to junk his genealogical formulas for identifying Jews Kritzinger and Stuckart—supported by other of the bureaucrats on hand—suggest that instead of killing these Untermenschen the Nazis sterilize them “We won’t sterilize them and wait until they die Death is the most reliable form of sterilization Heydrich has Eichmann outline programs for gassing Jews the participants who control Poland have delighted to watch Heydrich run rampant over Kritzinger and Stuckart Now it dawns on them that most of what Eichmann is describing has been going on in Poland under their noses Soon everyone understands this “consultation” to have been more of a sham than anyone could have guessed shaken—not by the industrialized horror they now realize to be taking place but by the bureaucratic tour de force they have witnessed Originally published in the June 2015 issue of World War II. To subscribe, click here Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance how Wild Bill Donovan shaped the American intelligence community William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) led a signal life from his youthful exploits with the Pony Express and in service as a U.S Army scout to his globetrotting days as a showman and international icon Buffalo Bill “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the world’s largest publisher of history magazines photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians sign me up! Josef Pötter Golf has completed the construction of new greens at Berlin-Wannsee Thomas Himmel has redesigned the surfaces with more variety and potential pin placements The course is expected to reopen in April 2019 Construction work has been completed on the redesign of greens on the 18-hole Championship course at the 27-hole Golf- und Land-Club Berlin-Wannsee – one of the oldest in the country – located in a south-western suburb of the German capital “The project started out with the plan to rebuild the greens according to modern USGA construction with the intention to keep the design to as it was before,” said Matthias Pötter project lead for construction firm Josef Pötter Golf it was then agreed to change some of the green designs to optimise water movement and to bring a more modern game At this stage it became clear that the project will be under enormous/extraordinary time pressure” Golf course architect Thomas Himmel said: “They were pretty much round-shaped and mainly flat not fitting to the course itself with its broad undulations and to the prestige and quality of the club The main goal of the redesign was to include more variety strategy and challenge to the greens – mainly by incorporating ‘sections’ that would create different pin positions with different grade of challenges.” so the greens work was on the putting surfaces only and the first two-to-three yards of collar “Without touching the greenside bunkers it was difficult to create 18 different greens Although the result seems to have received quite good feedback up to now,” said Himmel A turf nursery was established in October 2017 so that the greens could be turfed and ready for play as soon as possible after construction work began Pötter Golf’s site manager Darryl Spelman has overseen over 15,000 tonnes of materials moved on the site and Mark Turner was responsible for shaping Berlin-Wannsee head greenkeeper Karsten Opolka supervised a tree removal program to improve light and aeration of the redesigned greens Construction work began in October 2018 and was completed in February 2019 Pötter Golf handled 95 percent of the total project “We are very happy and proud with the progress we have made in such short amount of time,” said Pötter “Proper planning of logistics combined with a professional relationship between the working force on site and the club were key factors to this achievement.” Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz in Wannsee, Berlin was the site of the infamous Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis planned how to carry out the ‘Final Solution’ in January 1942 The exhibition in the house gives an insight into this criminal meeting and how the attendees put it into practice Using original documents and both audio and visual presentations the Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz exhibition details the genocide of European Jews a pharmaceutical manufacturer called Ernst Marlier built a new luxury villa selling the villa to an SS foundation in 1941 who used it as a guest house On 20 January 1942, fifteen senior members of the Nazi government and of the SS met at Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Chaired by the head of the Reich Security Main Office Reinhard Heydrich this group of men determined the course of the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe which would come to be known as the Holocaust Instigated by leader of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust would see over 6 million Jews murdered as well as members of other minorities: homosexuals handicapped people and anyone else considered by the Nazis to be “racially inferior” Heydrich outlined how the Jews would be sent to extermination camps in occupied Poland to be killed the Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz was used as a school Berlin’s mayor made the house a memorial and by 1992 it had become an official museum and educational centre Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz provides a moving memorial to the Holocaust as well as an in-depth history of the rise of the Nazi party the growth of anti-Semitism and the atrocities committed against the Jews the free exhibition includes photos and books about Jewish ghettos and everyday life there as well as detailed information about deportation and extermination of European Jews you can take a free guided tour of the house Explore the harrowing events and effects of the Holocaust through these important sites Uncover the devastating history of the Holocaust at these historic and significant locations around Germany History Hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through our award winning podcast network and an online history channel as well as exclusive offers from our shop and carefully selected partners Sign Me Up This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The Nazis chose the serene setting for one of the most infamous meetings in world history where they discussed their plans for the “Final Solution.” 1942 high ranking Nazi officials participated in the Wannsee Conference to provide a “rubber stamp” on plans that were already afoot to institute the “Final Solution.” In November 2021 at the Museum’s International Conference on World War II presented the following talk on the Wannsee Conference For more information about the International Conference, please visit ww2conference.com.  Jeremy Collins joined The National WWII Museum in 2001 as an intern and now oversees the institution’s public programming initiatives Copy MLA Citation Copy APA Citation Copy Chicago Style Citation a meeting took place in the Wannsee Villa to discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” – the annihilation of European Jewry The meeting was initiated by Reinhard Heydrich Heinrich Himmler’s deputy and head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) Heydrich invited the state secretaries of the most important German government ministries who had been designated to participate in the Final Solution’s implementation The Wannsee Conference was not convened to decide on the Final Solution but rather to discuss methods of implementation the decision itself having already been made at an earlier date International faith leaders to speak out against the anti-Semitism surge at 80th anniversary of Wannsee Conference in Berlin Senior faith leaders will take on the alarming rise of anti-Semitism at a memorial event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference today The one-day symposium will take place in the historical Französischer Dom in Berlin and will be followed by an official visit to the Wannsee Museum the next day 15 senior Nazi and German government officials came together to plan and coordinate the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question – the eradication of all the Jews in Europe “But the tragedy at Wannsee did not start with the Wannsee Conference in 1942,” symposium organizer Tomas Sandell of the European Coalition for Israel (ECI) “Without a supportive belief system and deeply rooted anti-Semitic sentiments in the German culture at the time To explore what faith leaders can learn from this tragedy and how they can prevent similar developments from happening today ECI invited senior church leaders to Berlin for a one-day consultation statements will be given by the Archbishop of Canterbury Secretary-General of the World Evangelical Alliance Thomas Schirrmacher and Chair of the Pentecostal Commission on Religious Liberty Arto Hämäläinen Participants will also hear from leading experts on anti-Semitism and senior Jewish leaders such as the president of the European Conference of Rabbis the associate executive vice-president and general counsel of the World Jewish Congress and others “Anti-Semitism cannot be defeated at a one-day symposium but this event can become a catalyst for greater understanding and determination as well as better coordination and cooperation among global faith leaders to take on the fight against this deadly virus,” Sandell said The symposium is a joint venture between the ECI and the Evangelical-Protestant Church of Germany (EKD) The church in Germany has a long history of dealing with the collective guilt of the Holocaust "Whilst the deadly threats to Jews in the 1940s were limited to those in Nazi-occupied Europe today anti-Semitism is raising its ugly head also in the United States" noted Sandell who is seriously concerned about the changing attitudes within the Unites States which he calls "the next battle ground in the combat against anti-Semitism.” will be represented at the symposium by Reverend Johnnie Moore Commission on International Religious Freedom and a recipient of the prestigious Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his advocacy on behalf of persecuted minorities in the Middle East “Now is the time for political and religious leaders all around the world to draw a line in the sand to say ´no´ to the dramatic rise in antisemitism around the world to declare 'not on our watch,'“ said Moore who is also the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders we were reminded yet again of the tragic necessity of this meeting.” The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel Nahїa Tournay from France works at the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial Centre where she provides people with information about the Holocaust After completing my bachelor's degree in political science, I therefore decided to do a voluntary year at the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference The memorial is about the so called Wannsee Conference that took place on 20 January 1942 was organised in detail by high-ranking Nazi officials what German society and citizens knew about the persecutions and the exhibition also provides information about dealing with the past after 1945.  Voluntary year at the House of the Wannsee Conference I have been involved with the topic of remembrance culture since my youth and have repeatedly taken part in remembrance projects for young people for example visiting the memorials of Natzweiler-Struthof and Auschwitz concentration camps Here at the House of the Wannsee Conference I now give guided tours myself and help colleagues who give workshops and seminars we are preparing a workshop for military personnel In addition to the history of the Holocaust it will also deal with the topic of discrimination in general I will probably start my master’s degree next autumn The one year here in Berlin is a very good break for me between the two degrees’ programs Nahїa Tournay is 21 years old and comes from France Since September 2023 she has been doing a voluntary year at the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference through Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace) We use to embed content that may collect data about your activity Please review the details and accept the service to see this content the date that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945 to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day There was recently another equally significant anniversary that should never be forgotten: January 20 marked 80 years to the day since 15 German state secretaries and senior SS officials – among them eight with doctorate degrees some whose fathers were Christian clergy – sat around a large table in a suburb of Berlin and unanimously voted to mass murder every Jew in Europe There is much to ponder about Wannsee in 2022 especially when anti-Semitic hate crimes rage in Berlin The appropriate context can only be provided by words uttered by the mass-murderer-of-Jews-in-chief The first words are the very last thoughts of Hitler’s Last Will and Testament in April 1945 as his Thousand-Year Reich was being reduced to rubble: “It is untrue that I or anybody else in Germany wanted war in 1939 … But nor have I left any doubt that if the nations of Europe are once more to be treated only as collections of stocks and shares of these international conspirators in money and finance then those who carry the real guilt for the murderous struggle this people will also be held responsible: the Jews I have further left no one in doubt that this time it will not be only millions of children of Europeans of the Aryan peoples who will starve to death not only millions of grown men who will suffer death and not only hundreds of thousands of women and children who will be burned and bombed to death in the cities without those who are really responsible also having to atone for their crime … But before everything else I call upon the leadership of the nation and those who follow it to observe the racial laws most carefully to fight mercilessly against the poisoners of all the peoples of the world during his last hours in this world still blamed the Jews for the war for the “suffering” of the “Aryan peoples.” And his final call was “to fight mercilessly against the poisoners of all the peoples of the world The second reference is to lesser-known but crucially important words penned by Hitler in 1919 and acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Center A four-page report was written and signed by Hitler at the behest of the intelligence unit to which he was assigned shortly before demobilization after Germany’s defeat in World War I six years before the publication of Mein Kampf which will always find its expression in the form of pogroms” wouldn’t solve the problem – only “a legal … removal of the rights of the Jew” would Hitler continued: “The uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether” could be accomplished only “under a government of national strength and never under a government of national impotence.” In the chaotic aftermath of Germany’s defeat no one could predict that Hitler would amass the power to see his genocidal hatred be formalized and carried out as German governmental policy two decades later Much has been made about the fact that throughout the 1930s Hitler mesmerized millions of Germans with the fervor of his promise to make Germany an unmatched power bolstered by new propaganda techniques and backed by murder and mayhem unleashed against anyone who opposed him meant the masses of the world’s most civilized society would be prepared to march straight into World War II in 1939 could not fulfill his genocidal vision of a Judenrein Europe alone his vision of a Jew-free world could not be achieved by “emotional pogroms” or even the mass execution of hundreds of thousands of Jews by special killing squads in newly captured Soviet territories to keep shooting women and children at such close range All that would change at a secret meeting on the shores of beautiful Lake Wannsee because of Pearl Harbor (Hitler declared war on the United States right after) the Wannsee Conference was rescheduled for Jan deputy SS chief and head of the Reich Security Main Office summoned the state secretaries of Germany’s most important ministries to coordinate their participation in achieving the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem.” Better methods had to be implemented The participants around the table were no ordinary thugs Most had attended Germany’s most respected schools and universities And while they knew that hundreds of thousands of Jews were being executed en masse in occupied USSR Heydrich left little doubt that Hitler had ordered a Final Solution to the Jewish problem – meaning all of Europe’s Jews were to be annihilated Heydrich convened the meeting to involve Germany’s government ministries to help to carry out genocide rapidly and efficiently He had expected opposition from some attendees But according to Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann Heydrich found an “unexpected air of agreement.” Rather than expressing concerns or outright opposition the eight doctors of law and philosophy in attendance expressed enthusiasm about being included in the plan At his trial in Jerusalem many years later “These gentlemen were sitting together and minced no words about it … They spoke about methods of killing the Jews liquidation … about extermination.” Gassing Jews drew particular interest the Wannsee Conference was its death warrant Wannsee provided proof that the Shoah may have been the vision of one man but it was embraced and carried out by the German government and all who marched in lockstep with Hitler’s vision including bureaucracies who never fired a gun in anger Their skill sets were key to unleashing genocide The summary of the conference – the Wannsee Protocol – is the only document in history codifying genocide as official state policy The Wannsee Conference took fewer than 90 minutes to devise a plan to wipe out the entire Jewish population in Europe It took place not in some backwater but in the world’s most culturally each of us should read and ponder the Wannsee Protocol Never again should anyone confuse an advanced education with morality Some of Germany’s most educated enthusiastically followed Hitler; today there are too many educated people prepared to forge strategies legitimizing crimes in the name of a greater good Never again should leaders turn a blind eye to today’s evils unleashed against innocents in China or Iran with the hope that somehow catering to tyrants will work out for the best That didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain and it won’t work now Germany will always have special obligations linked to Wannsee Germany in 2022 must be guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism Today’s Germany should take all necessary measures to hold accountable all perpetrators and purveyors of anti-Semitism at home It must take the public lead against all Holocaust denial and distortion on social media and in the halls of power and diplomacy Nowhere is such a commitment as needed and sorely lacking as when it comes to Germany’s continuous pursuit of economic gain in Iran That is the only way to explain Berlin’s deafening silence as Iran’s supreme leader and his human-rights-crushing regime pursue Holocaust denial as state policy and Iran’s top leadership threatens to destroy Israel – home to over 6 million living The German president can put an end to Iran’s Holocaust denial by inviting the ayatollah and his new president to visit Wannsee along with Dachau millions of Germans have learned the hard way that words have consequences and that we must take tyrants at their word We can only pray that Germany’s new leaders along with the US and France will pause in these days between January 20 and January 27 to study the Wannsee Protocol It might just save humankind from the next “unthinkable” catastrophe Klopfer: [mutters appreciatively] Yes Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart: For whom from your uniform I can infer that you're shallow what the party rants on about is how inferior they are My indictments to that race are stronger and heavier because they are real They are arrogant and self-obsessed and calculating and reject the Christ and I will not have them pollute German blood General Reinhard Heydrich: [tries to calm Stuckart down] Please Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart: He doesn't understand Deal with the reality of the Jew and the world will applaud us and the world would have justified contempt for us To kill them casually without regard for the law martyrs them Sterilization recognizes them as a part of our species but prevents them from being a part of our race And we will have acted in defense of our race and of our species and by the law This fellow mentioned the law for the protection of German blood When you have my credentials then we'll talk about who loves the Jews and who hates them that to kill them abandons that half of their blood which is German Klopfer: I'll remember you Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart: You should. I'm very well known. Crouded bathing at the Strandbad Wannsee (bathing beach) and the star of the show is undoubtedly the Wannsee Its waters lap at the Grunewald Forest and are dotted with yachting clubs and interesting cultural sights such as the House of the Wannsee Conference (where the Nazis planned the Final Solution) and the former villa of impressionist painter Max Liebermann which exhibits his work and has a lovely garden café overlooking the lake Nearby is the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) a former royal playground that’s now a pleasant park accessible by ferry a half-mile-long sandy beach jam-packed with locals and visitors Information on this page, including website, location, and opening hours, is subject to have changed since this page was last published. If you would like to report anything that’s inaccurate, let us know at notification@afar.com. AFAR participates in affiliate marketing programs, which means we may earn a commission if you purchase an item featured on our site.© 2025 AFAR LLC With the softer hearts cowed, the men take their leave. Outside, Stanley Tucci’s Adolf Eichmann catches the guards indulging in a snowball fight. He finds the superior officer and slaps him. “It just seemed to happen,” the soldier stammers. “Not in uniform,” Eichmann replies. “Nothing ever just happens.” Compare these programmes with an article here by Matt Lebovic in the Times of Israel who actually did some research of his own and spoke to a number of leading Dutch Holocaust historians “The book is full of terms such as ‘most likely’ ‘most certainly’ and ‘it is plausible that’ yet in the end the findings are presented as some kind of truth,” said Laurien Vastenhout a researcher and lecturer at the National Institute for War “According to Bart van der Boom of Leiden University,” writes Lebovic “the premise of Amsterdam’s Jewish Council having lists of hiding places ‘makes no sense and is not supported by any serious evidence’.” ‘“My students would not get away with this,’ said Van der Boom whose book about the Amsterdam Jewish Council will be published in April.” Overall Van der Boom said he found the conclusions at the heart of The Betrayal of Anne Frank to be “downright ridiculous and reprehensible” Historians are now agreed that Wannsee was not the starting-point for the Holocaust “it is clear that no ‘decision’ to murder the European Jews was made at the Wannsee Conference” This was not the decisive moment that led to the Final Solution The men at Wannsee were there to implement plans that had already been decided on What's this for? Already have an account with TheArticle? Sign in here Don't have an account with TheArticle? Register here Please enter your registered email address below and we will send you a link to reset it By proceeding, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy If an account exists for this email address please check your Junk Mail folder and add info@thearticle.com to your safe list During our stay at the former boathouse, we rustled up some authentic, German delicacies. Sample our boathouse bites, and find out how to make them here Left: around half the raw concrete interior is given over to a double-height studio space part of the Equilibre d’Hermès collection by Achille Castiglioni and Giancarlo Pozzi £126; ‘Astor’ cushion (yellow) €1,280; earrings, €350 by Céline During our stay at the former boathouse, we rustled up some authentic, German delicacies. Sample our boathouse bites, and find out how to make them here escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox Nazis had another meeting during which they planned the mass starvation of millions of Eastern Europeans The “Staatssekretäre” conference was held on May 2 1941 by a group of high-ranking ministers responsible for the logistics of the German invasion of the Soviet Union Notes from the meeting reflect that attendees planned for the German military to commandeer food and resources from Russia during the invasion and occupation and that which Kay calls “alarmingly matter-of-fact,” demonstrate that officials were well aware of the costs of their decision to invade Russia Rather than making provisions for the people whose territory they planned to seize At the center of this strategy was a minister named Herbert Backe who was in charge of agriculture and food policy for the Third Reich Backe and his colleagues analyzed which parts of the USSR produced food surpluses and which parts depended on others for food—aware at all times that the people from whom food was stolen would simply starve and other commodities and take that food back to Germany leaving more perishable fat and meat behind for German troops The notes show the Nazis’ acceptance of a military strategy intent on turning the Soviet Union from an industrial country back into an agricultural one It also shows their blatant disregard of non-German lives Nazi officials filled in that ominous “X” with 30 million—three times as many people as they planned to murder during the Holocaust at the Wannsee Conference But though the minutes of the May meeting were used as evidence during the Nuremberg trials and the relentless starvation of millions of Soviet POWs under direct military control These were unforgettable episodes in an infamously bloody war—yet nothing close what officials so coldly calculated in May 1941 Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Two Israelis Pass Down Its History80 years ago fifteen high-ranking Nazis held a meeting in Wannsee The item on the agenda was the logistics of the Final Solution 2022Get email notification for articles from Ofer Aderet FollowJan 20 2022There is a question that Deborah Hartmann has fielded several times: “How does a Jew feel about working in the same place they discussed the Final Solution?” She is the director of the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin she has been a much much-sought-after subject for interviews in the German press This story was originally published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference that took place on Jan International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Jan BERLIN — As Germany marks Friday's 75th anniversary of a meeting where senior Nazi officials devised a plan to murder all European Jews there are small signs the country is relaxing its grip on how it confronts the Holocaust straightforward approach to explaining its Nazi-era heritage historical facsimiles or anything that can't be meticulously documented "It's an approach that's based on the idea that people shouldn't be intimidated and shocked but informed in a matter of fact a former government lawyer and director of the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site a villa in southwest Berlin where 15 high-ranking Nazis conceived the plan to deport and kill Jews during World War II "It is not always necessary to show big piles of corpses," Jasch said "The point is not to overwhelm people with history Britain and France often present information about Nazis and the Holocaust in a different way an adviser to Germany's federal agency for civic education who helps organize information about Holocaust memorial projects "They really try to work more on an emotional level with replicas and other methods," she said Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington that follows a boy growing up in Nazi Germany a replica of Adolf Hitler's bunker office where he spent his final days went on display last fall in an air raid shelter where Hitler had committed suicide on April 30 The replica in Berlin is part of a private initiative that includes a portrait of Hitler's favorite Prussian leader an oxygen bottle with a mask and a statue of the Nazi leader's dog Blondi "A lot of people come to Berlin and think there is one central place where they can learn about Hitler or see some traces of what his life was like There needs to be an exhibition about Hitler himself because he was the one who more or less caused World War II and whose death ended it." Critics have accused organizers of showing a lack of respect for "objective" history a museum in Berlin located on the site that housed the Gestapo secret police and Hitler's SS paramilitaries was not something his institution would consider doing German authorities have resisted creating a single repository for information about Hitler worrying that neo-Nazis could turn it into a shrine Lenze said he is providing a teaching experience "The Topography of Terror has a lot of text and a lot pictures But let's face it: If there's a school class They want to listen to someone who can show and tell them about Hitler in an accessible way." Germany has more than 2,000 memorial sites noting the Nazi-committed horrors that killed 6 million Jews and millions of others during World War II according to the Berlin-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Germany will spend about $21 million running and conserving these sites according to the department of culture and media "Germany makes absolutely no attempt to cover up It's an exemplar in its openness for dealing with its difficult and conflicted past," said John Lennon a professor at Glasgow University whose research focuses on people attracted to sites of mass killing "There is a very high willingness to debate the past such as do you let the ruins crumble or do you shore them up There is also almost an obsession with documentation and evidence." A recent debate centered on a scholarly annotated version of Mein Kampf Hitler's manifesto published in 1925 that was banned in Germany for seven decades after World War II for fear it could be used as propaganda making it one of the best-selling non-fiction titles in Germany the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich "The number of sales has completely overwhelmed us No one could have predicted it," Andreas Wirsching The institute said the book has been bought by political and history buffs and educators not "reactionaries or right-wing radicals." Germans have been more willing to explore and question their own family history who heads a research center that studies the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg but increasing number of people are asking him to help find more about what their relatives did during the war "It seems almost natural that we should be able to talk about our history now in a more lighthearted way," said Timur Vermes whose 2012 best-selling book Look Who's Back a satire that re-imagines Hitler in present-day Germany "Humor is a way of dealing with terrible things it has taken quite a long time because of what we did "A book like mine would probably have been possible 10 years ago here But I don't think there's necessarily some huge demand in Germany for dealing with Hitler or the Nazis in the way I did,"  Vermes said said the Nazi era is becoming "normal history," allowing Germans to talk about it with less trepidation "Modern history is defined by eyewitnesses being there It's not even the society's grandparents anymore It's the society's great-grandparents who did something and most of us have a very weak connection to them," he said said he is working with a production company on the idea of installing screens in the villa to show short biographical films on the Nazi officials who attended the meeting 75 years ago "People have an urge to 're-live' history in this way There is a danger that it somehow becomes kitsch."