The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. In a meeting, two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a (usually predetermined topic such as business or community event planning often in a formal setting Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. The Wannsee is both a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany, and a linked pair of Lakes adjoining Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The purpose of the conference was to inform heads of German Government Departments that had responsibility for various policies relating to Jews of Reinhard Heydrich's appointment as the sole executor of the "Final solution to the Jewish question", and to obtain their agreement to subordinate their policies to him. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( 7 March 1904 &ndash 4 June 1942) was an SS - Obergruppenführer, chief The Final Solution ( Die Endlösung) was Nazi Germany 's plan and execution of its systematic Genocide against European Jewry during World In the course of the meeting, Heydrich presented a plan, approved by Hitler, for the deportation of the Jewish population of Europe to German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, and the use of the Jews fit for labour on road-building projects; that plan was never fully implemented, owing to the failure to achieve final victory over the Soviet Union, and most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe were sent to extermination or concentration camps, or killed where they lived.

Background

The villa at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, where the Wannsee Conference was held. Today it is a memorial and museum

The spectacular German successes of all the opening weeks of the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, induced a mood of euphoria among the Nazi leadership, and led to an increasingly radical view of the "final solution" of the "Jewish question" – a question which became more urgent with the possibility of the four million Jews of the western Soviet Union coming under German control. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Operation Barbarossa ( Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the Codename for Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II ^[1] On 16 July 1941, Hitler addressed a meeting of ministers, including Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, which discussed the administration of the occupied Soviet territories. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Reichsmarschall (Marshal of the Empire or Imperial Marshal in English) was the highest rank in the Armed forces of Nazi Germany during Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Goering) (12 January 1893 15 October 1946 was a German Politician, Military leader and a leading member He said that Soviet territories west of the Urals were to become a "German Garden of Eden", and that "naturally this vast area must be pacified as quickly as possible; this will happen best by shooting anyone who even looks sideways at us. Riphean redirects here For the time period see Riphean stage The Ural Mountains (Ура́льские го́ры Uralskiye Not to be confused with Eden Gardens.The Garden of Eden ( Hebrew "pleasure" גַּן עֵדֶן Arabic: جنات عدن, "^[2]

Hitler's chief lieutenants, Göring and the SS chief Heinrich Himmler, took this and other comments by Hitler at this time (most of which were not recorded, but were attested to at postwar trials) as authority to proceed with a more radical "final solution to the Jewish question" (Die Endlösung der Judenfrage), involving the complete removal of the Jews from the German-occupied territories. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS. On 31 July 1941 Göring gave a written authorisation to SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) to "make all necessary preparations" for a "total solution of the Jewish question" in all the territories under German influence; to co-ordinate the participation of all government organisations whose co-operation was required; and to submit a "comprehensive draft" of a plan for the "final solution to the Jewish question". Events 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian 's forces but most of his army subsequently Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Gruppenführer (literally “Group Leader” was an early Paramilitary Rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( 7 March 1904 &ndash 4 June 1942) was an SS - Obergruppenführer, chief The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Head Office was a subordinate organization of the SS. ^[3]

Göring at this time was the second-most powerful figure in the Nazi regime, having been given the special rank of Reichsmarschall and designated as Adolf Hitler's successor. Reichsmarschall (Marshal of the Empire or Imperial Marshal in English) was the highest rank in the Armed forces of Nazi Germany during Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately ^[4] Heydrich would have understood any instruction from Göring also to carry the authority of Hitler. Heydrich also knew that his immediate superior, Himmler, was in favour of exterminating the Jews, and was at that moment directing his Einsatzgruppen to do just that across the newly-conquered Soviet territories. Einsatzgruppen ( German: "task forces" "intervention groups" were Paramilitary groups formed by Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Lange, commander of Einsatzkommando 2 in Latvia, wrote that his orders were "a radical solution of the Jewish problem through the execution of all Jews". Rudolf Lange ( 18 April 1910 &ndash 23 February 1945) was a prominent Nazi official Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. ^[5] In October the deportation of the Jews of Germany, Austria and the Czech lands to the east began. When trainloads of German Jews arrived at Riga in Latvia, Lange simply had them shot. Riga (Rīga riːga) the Capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. But this was clearly not a feasible method of dealing with millions of people: the cost of ammunition alone was unacceptable, and it was observed that even SS troops were uncomfortable about shooting assimilated German Jews as opposed to Ostjuden or "Eastern Jews". ^[6] The head of the German civil administration in the Baltic area, Wilhelm Kube, objected to German Jews, "who come from our own cultural circle", being casually killed by German soldiers. Wilhelm Kube ( 13 November 1887 - 22 September 1943) was a German politician and Nazi official ^[7]

During the second half of 1941, therefore, Heydrich and his staff worked on proposals to "evacuate" all Jews from Germany and the occupied countries to labour camps, either in occupied Poland or further east in the Soviet Union, which it was assumed would soon be completely conquered. There those who were unable to work would be killed, while the remainder would soon be worked to death. But the German defeat in front of Moscow in November-December led to a sharp change of emphasis. Euphoria was replaced by acceptance of a long war, and also by a realisation that food stocks were not sufficient to feed the entire population of German occupied Europe. ^[8] It was at this time the decision to proceed from "evacuation" to extermination was made. Speaking with Himmler and Heydrich on 25 October, Hitler said: "Let no-one say to me: we cannot send them into the swamp. Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Who then cares about our own people? It is good when terror precedes us that we are exterminating the Jews. We are writing history anew, from the racial standpoint. " Himmler and Heydrich thus had implicit authorisation from Hitler to proceed with the extermination of the Jews. ^[9]

Planning the conference

Letter from Reinhard Heydrich to Martin Luther, Undersecretary at the Foreign Office, inviting him to the Wannsee Conference (Wannsee Conference House Memorial, Berlin)

By November, 1941, it was becoming known in the upper reaches of the Nazi leadership and the bureaucracy that Hitler intended all the Jews of Europe to be deported to the eastern territories and, one way or another, killed there. ^[10] Such a vast enterprise, involving the registration, assembly and transportation of millions of people, to be carried out at a time when Germany's infrastructure was under severe strain, was a massive logistical undertaking. It was also one which at least some elements of the German state apparatus might be expected to oppose, obstruct or fail to co-operate with. It thus became necessary to bring together representatives of all the relevant departments to explain to them what was intended and how it was to be carried out, and to make it clear that this undertaking was done on the highest authority of the Reich and could not be resisted.

On 29 November Heydrich sent out invitations to a meeting to be held on 9 December at the headquarters of the International Criminal Police Commission (the forerunner of Interpol, of which Heydrich at the time served as President) at 16 Am Kleinen Wannsee, in the comfortable lakeside suburb of Wannsee on the western edge of Berlin. Events 1777 - San Jose California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe Events 536 - Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city The International Criminal Police Organization, better known by its telegraphic address Interpol is an organization facilitating international police cooperation He enclosed a copy of Göring's letter of 31 July to underline his authority. Events 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian 's forces but most of his army subsequently To show that this was a meeting of administrators to discuss implementing a policy already decided at the political level, those invited were mostly State Secretaries - senior bureaucrats in the government ministries. Ministries represented were Interior, Justice, the Four Year Plan and Occupied Eastern Territories. The Foreign Office was represented by an Undersecretary, because Heydrich suspected that the Secretary of State was an opponent of the regime. Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker ( 25 May 1882 &ndash 4 August 1951) was a German Diplomat and convicted War criminal ^[11] Also present were representatives of the Reich Chancellery, the Nazi Party Chancellery and the Race and Resettlement Main Office of the RSHA, and the head of the Gestapo. The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany When Hans Frank, head of the General Government in occupied Poland, heard of the meeting, he demanded to be represented, and Heydrich quickly agreed. Hans Michael Frank ( May 23 1900 &ndash October 16 1946) was a German Lawyer who worked for the Nazi party The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation Also to be present was SS-Sturmbannführer Lange, invited because of his experience of killing German Jews in Latvia. Heydrich's right-hand man Eichmann was to take the minutes. ^[12]

A series of events in December, 1941, forced the postponement of the meeting. On 5 December, the Soviet Army began its counter-offensive in front of Moscow, ending the dream of a rapid conquest of the Soviet Union. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. On 7 December, the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, and on 11 December Germany declared war on the U. Events 43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero assassinated 1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways Pearl Harbor is a Harbor on the Island of O{{okina}}ahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Events 359 - Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office S. These events caused the meeting to be delayed until 20 January 1942. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The German historian Christian Gerlach maintains that the postponement of the meeting had a deeper political cause. Götz Aly writes: "The postponement followed, one could assert, the political confusion that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had caused. Götz Aly (born May 3 1947 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German Journalist, Historian and Social scientist But Gerlach substantiates with convincing details that the originally planned Wannsee Conference had had an entirely different theme than that which actually took place six weeks later. It had only been anticipated to discuss problems that occurred with the deportations of the (Greater) German Jews. . . Only after Hitler's speech of December 12 was Heydrich able, as Gerlach shows, to broaden the theme and fix a conference on the 'Final Solution of the European Jewish question'. Events 627 - Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II 's Persian "^[13]

The conference was to take place at a new venue, a villa at 56–-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, a quiet residential street, across the Grosser Wannsee lake from the popular Wannsee beach. The villa, built in 1914, had been acquired by the SS in 1940 for use as a conference centre. ^[14] When the conference finally assembled at midday on 20 January those present were:

• SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (Chief of the RSHA and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia), presiding
• Dr Josef Bühler (Government of the General Government)
• Dr Roland Freisler (Reich Ministry of Justice)
• SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann (Race and Resettlement Main Office, RuSHA)
• SA-Oberführer Dr Gerhard Klopfer (NSDAP Chancellery)
• Ministerialdirektor Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (Reich Chancellery)
• SS-Sturmbannführer Dr Rudolf Lange (Commander of the SD for Latvia)
• Reichsamtleiter Dr Georg Leibbrandt (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories)
• Martin Luther (Foreign Office)
• Gauleiter Dr Alfred Meyer (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories)
• SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller (Chief of Amt IV (Gestapo), Reich Security Main Office (RSHA))
• Erich Neumann (Director, Office of the Four Year Plan)
• SS-Oberführer Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (SD, assigned to the General Government)
• Dr Wilhelm Stuckart (Reich Ministry for the Interior)
• SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann (Head of Referat IV B4 of the Gestapo), minutes secretary

In preparation for the conference, Eichmann had prepared a list, by nation, of the numbers of Jews liable to be killed (pictured below). Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( 7 March 1904 &ndash 4 June 1942) was an SS - Obergruppenführer, chief Dr Josef Bühler (also referred to as Joseph Buehler ( February 16 1904 &ndash August 22, 1948) was state secretary and deputy governor to The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation Early life In contrast to most of the Nazi leadership not much beyond basic details is known about Freisler Otto Hofmann ( March 16 1896 &ndash December 31 1982) was an Austrian SS - Gruppenführer Gerhard Klopfer ( February 18 1905 &ndash January 29 1987) was an official of the Nazi Party and assistant to Martin Bormann Dr Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger ( April 14, 1890 &ndash April 25 1947) was a Nazi politician Rudolf Lange ( 18 April 1910 &ndash 23 February 1945) was a prominent Nazi official Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Georg Leibbrandt ( September 5, 1899 - June 16, 1982) was a scholar and politician in the Nazi Party. For other people named Martin Luther see Martin Luther (disambiguation. Dr Alfred Meyer ( October 5, 1891 &ndash April 11, 1945) was a Nazi official achieving the rank Heinrich Müller (born April 28, 1900, date of death unknown aka "Gestapo Müller" was head of the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany Erich Neumann (1892 - 1948 was a Nazi Politician. He was born in Forst into a Protestant family Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth ( April 22, 1903 &ndash May 16, 1946) was a German Nazi associated with The Holocaust Dr Wilhelm Stuckart ( November 16, 1902 &ndash November 15, 1953) was a Nazi Party Lawyer and official a state secretary The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany It was divided into two sections, (A) for those regions under Reich control and (B) for allies, neutral states and those at war with Germany. The numbers reflect actions already perpetrated by the Nazis. (Estonia is listed as judenfrei, "Jew-free", because the thousand Jews that remained in Estonia after the German occupation had been almost completely massacred by the end of 1941. )^[15] A translation:^[16]

List A

Eichmann's list

• Germany (the old Reich): 131,800
• Austria: 43,700
• Eastern Territories: 420,000
• General Government: 2,284,000
• Bialystok (a city in northern Poland): 400,000
• Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: 74,200
• Estonia: "Jew-free"
• Latvia: 3,500
• Lithuania: 34,000
• Belgium: 43,000
• Denmark: 5,600
• France (occupied): 165,000
• Vichy France (unoccupied until November 1942): 700,000
• Greece: 69,600
• Netherlands: 160,800
• Norway: 1,300

List B

• Bulgaria: 48,000
• England (assumed to mean United Kingdom): 330,000
• Finland: 2,300
• Ireland: 4,000
• Italy: 58,000
• Albania: 200
• Croatia: 40,000
• Portugal: 3,000
• Romania (with Bessarabia): 342,000
• Sweden: 8,000
• Switzerland: 18,000
• Serbia: 10,000
• Slovakia: 88,000
• Spain: 6,000
• Turkey: 55,500
• Hungary: 742,800
• USSR (excluding Bialystok): 5,000,000

A total in excess of 11,000,000 people. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933 Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich At the beginning of World War II, significant Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany in contrary to Hague Convention IV 1907 and put under German civil The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation Białystok Lublin Voivodeship Białystok (also known by alternative names) is the largest City in northeastern Poland. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren Protektorát Čechy a Morava was the majority ethnic-Czech Protectorate which Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia ( Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Bessarabia ( Basarabia in Romanian, Бесарабія in Ukrainian, Бессарабия in Russian, Бесарабия in Bulgarian "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Białystok Lublin Voivodeship Białystok (also known by alternative names) is the largest City in northeastern Poland.

For comparison see "Jewish Lists" of the Korherr Report of January 18, 1943. The Korherr Report, is a document on the progress of the Holocaust written by the chief inspector of the statistical bureau of the SS, Dr Richard Korherr

Proceedings

The conference room at the Wannsee Conference House as it appears today

Heydrich opened the conference with an account of the anti-Jewish measures taken in Germany since the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, reporting that between 1933 and 1941, 530,000 German and Austrian Jews had emigrated. ^[17] This speech was based on a briefing paper written for him the previous week by Eichmann, who after his experiences in organizing the forced emigration of the Viennese Jews in 1938, had become the leading German expert on the practicalities of solving the "Jewish question". ^[18]

Heydrich reported that there were approximately 11 million Jews in the whole of Europe, of whom half a million were in countries not under German control. ^[19] He stated that since it was no longer possible for European Jews to emigrate, another, "final", solution would have to be found to the "Jewish question". He reported that "another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i. e. the evacuation of the Jews to the East".

It is sometimes asserted that the Wannsee Conference decided on no more than the "evacuation" of the Jewish population of Europe to the east, with no reference to killing them. ^[20] In fact Heydrich made the fate of those "evacuated" clear:

"Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes. The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival".

Thus, Heydrich stated more or less openly that the majority of the Jews were to be worked to death through hard physical labour somewhere in the occupied eastern territories, while the "remnant," the strongest and fittest and thus most dangerous from the Nazi point of view, would be "treated accordingly". No-one at the meeting can have doubted the meaning of these expressions. The historian Christopher Browning observes: "No less than eight of the fifteen participants held the doctorate. Christopher Robert Browning, born, is an American Historian of The Holocaust. Thus it was not a dimwitted crowd unable to grasp what was going to be said to them. Nor were they going to be overcome with surprise or shock, for Heydrich was not talking to the uninitiated or squeamish. "^[21]

Heydrich went on to say that in the course of the "practical execution of the final solution", Europe would be "combed through from west to east", but that Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, would have priority "due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities". The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren Protektorát Čechy a Morava was the majority ethnic-Czech Protectorate which This was a reference to increasing pressure from the regional Nazi Party leaders in Germany, the Gauleiters, for the Jews to be removed from their areas to allow accommodation for Germans made homeless by Allied bombing, as well as for labourers being imported from occupied countries. The "evacuated" Jews, he said, would first be sent to "transit ghettos" in the General Government, from which they would be transported to the East.

Heydrich said that to avoid legal and political difficulties, it was important to define who was a Jew for the purposes of "evacuation. " He outlined categories of people who would be exempted. Jews over 65 years old, and Jewish World War I veterans alike, who had been severely wounded or who had won the Iron Cross, would be sent to the "model" concentration camp at Theresienstadt. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All For other meanings please see Iron Cross (disambiguation The Iron Cross ( was a Military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia Theresienstadt concentration camp (often referred to as Terezín) was a Nazi Concentration camp during World War II. "With this expedient solution", he said, "in one fell swoop many interventions will be prevented. "^[22]

The situation of people who were in a racial sense half or quarter Jews, and of Jews who were married to non-Jews, was more complex. Under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, their status had been left deliberately ambiguous. The Nuremberg Laws ( German: Nürnberger Gesetze) of 1935 were denaturalization laws passed in Nazi Germany. Heydrich announced that "mischlings" (mixed-race persons) of the first degree (persons with two Jewish grandparents), would be treated as Jews. Mischling (" Crossbreed " in German) was the German term used during the Third Reich era in the German Empire to denote persons deemed to have partial This would not apply if they were married to a non-Jew and had children by that marriage. It would also not apply if they had been granted written exemption by "the highest offices of the Party and State. " Such persons would instead be sterilised.

"Mischlings of the second degree" (persons with one Jewish grandparent) would be treated as Germans unless they were married to Jews or mischlings of the first degree, or had a "racially especially undesirable appearance that marks him outwardly as a Jew", or had a "political record that shows that he feels and behaves like a Jew". Persons in these latter categories would be deported even if married to non-Jews.

Facsimiles of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference and Eichmann's list, presented under glass at the Wannsee Conference House Memorial.

In the case of mixed marriages, Heydrich advocated a policy of caution, "with regard to the effects on the German relatives". If such a marriage had produced children who were being raised as Germans, the Jewish partner would not be deported. If they were being raised as Jews, they might be deported, or sent to Theresienstadt, depending on the circumstances. ^[23]

It is important to note that these exemptions applied only to German and Austrian Jews (and were not always observed even in regard to them). In most of the occupied countries, Jews were rounded up and deported en masse, and anyone who lived in or identified with the Jewish community in a given place was regarded as a Jew. ^[24] One of the few exceptions to this was France, where the Vichy French regime, in exchange for ready co-operation, was able to apply its own rules, affecting mainly refugees and recent immigrants rather than French-born Jews. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 Heydrich commented: "In occupied and unoccupied France, the registration of Jews for evacuation will in all probability proceed without great difficulty", but in fact the great majority of French-born Jews survived. ^[25] In Denmark, relatively few Jews were ultimately exterminated, due to strong opposition by the King and the populace. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe ^[26]

More difficulty was anticipated with Germany's allies, Romania and Hungary. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic "In Romania the government has [now] appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs", Heydrich said, but in fact the deportation of Romanian Jews was slow and inefficient despite the high degree of popular anti-Semitism. "In order to settle the question in Hungary", Heydrich said, "it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government". The Hungarian regime of Miklós Horthy continued to resist German interference in its Jewish policy until 1944, when Horthy was overthrown and 500,000 Hungarian Jews sent to their deaths by Eichmann. Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós vitez nɒɟbaɲɒi horti mikloʃ German Nikolaus von Horthy und Nagybánya ^[27]

Heydrich spoke for nearly an hour. Then followed about 30 minutes of questions and comments, followed by some less formal conversation. ^[28] Luther from the Foreign Office urged caution in Scandinavia, "Nordic" countries where public opinion was not hostile to the small Jewish populations and would react badly to unpleasant scenes. Hofmann and Stuckart pointed out the legalistic and administrative difficulties over mixed marriages, arguing for compulsory dissolution of marriages to prevent legal disputes and for the wider use of sterilisation as an alternative to deportation. Neumann from the Four Year Plan argued for the exemption of Jews who were working in industries vital to the war effort and for whom no replacements are available. Heydrich (keen not to offend Neumann's boss Hermann Göring) assured him that these Jews would not be "evacuated". ^[29] There were questions about the mischlings and those in mixed marriages: the details of these complex questions were put off until a later meeting. ^[30]

Finally Bühler of the General Government in occupied Poland stated that:

"the General Government would welcome it if the final solution of this problem could be begun in the General Government, since on the one hand transportation does not play such a large role here nor would problems of labor supply hamper this action. Jews must be removed from the territory of the General Government as quickly as possible, since it is especially here that the Jew as an epidemic carrier represents an extreme danger and on the other hand he is causing permanent chaos in the economic structure of the country through continued black market dealings. ".

Omissions

View of the Großer Wannsee lake from the villa at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, where the conference was held

The above account is based on the minutes taken by Eichmann, copies of which were sent by Eichmann to all the participants after the meeting. ^[31] Most of these copies were destroyed at the end of the war as participants and other officials sought to cover their tracks. It was not until 1947 that a copy of the minutes (known from the German word for "minutes" as the "Wannsee Protocol"^[32]) was found in the papers of Undersecretary Martin Luther, who had died in May 1945. By this time the more important participants in the meeting were dead or missing (Heydrich, Müller, Eichmann), and most of the others denied knowledge of the meeting or claimed that they could not remember what had occurred there. Only Kritzinger ever showed any genuine remorse for his role in preparing the Final Solution.

There were, however, significant omissions in the minutes. These were not fully elucidated until the interrogation and trial of Eichmann in Israel in 1962. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Eichmann told his questioners that towards the end of the meeting cognac was served, and that after that the conversation became less restrained. ^[33] "The gentlemen were standing together, or sitting together", he said, "and were discussing the subject quite bluntly, quite differently from the language which I had to use later in the record. During the conversation they minced no words about it at all. . . they spoke about methods of killing, about liquidation, about extermination". ^[34]

Eichmann recorded that Heydrich was pleased with the course of the meeting. He "gave expression to his great satisfaction", and allowed himself a glass of cognac, although he rarely drank. He "had expected considerable stumbling blocks and difficulties", Eichmann recalled, but instead he had found "an atmosphere not only of agreement on the part of the participants, but more than that, one could feel an agreement which had assumed a form which had not been expected". ^[35] At the conclusion of the meeting Heydrich gave Eichmann firm instructions about what was to appear in the minutes. They were not to be verbatim: Eichmann would "clean them up" so that nothing too explicit appeared in them. He said at his trial: "How shall I put it –- certain over-plain talk and jargon expressions had to be rendered into office language by me". As a result, the last 20 minutes of the meeting, in which, as Eichmann recalled, words like liquidation and extermination were freely used, were summed up in one bland sentence: "In conclusion the different types of possible solutions were discussed". ^[36] Thus the minutes must be read in conjunction with Eichmann's testimony to get as near as is possible to a full account of what took place at the Wannsee Conference.

Interpretation

Reinhard Heydrich

The Wannsee Conference lasted for about 90 minutes, and for most of its participants it was one meeting among many in a busy week. The enormous importance which has been attached to the conference by postwar writers was not evident to most of its participants at the time. The Wannsee Conference made no fundamental decisions about the extermination of the Jews. Such decisions, as everybody at the meeting understood, were made by Hitler, in consultation, if he chose, with senior colleagues such as Himmler and Göring, and not by officials. They knew that in this case the decision had already been made, and that Heydrich was there as Himmler's emissary to tell them about it. Nor did the conference engage in detailed logistical planning. It could hardly do so in the absence of a representative of the Transport Ministry or the German Railways. The Deutsche Reichsbahn ( DR, "German Reich Railway" – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual

What, then, was the purpose of the meeting? Eichmann's biographer David Cesarani says that Heydrich's main purpose was to impose his own authority on the various ministries and agencies involved in Jewish policy matters, to avoid any repetition of the disputes that had arisen over the killing of the German Jews at Riga in October. David Cesarani (* 1956) is an English Historian who specialises in Jewish history especially The Holocaust. "The simplest, most decisive way that Heydrich could ensure the smooth flow of deportations", he writes, "was by asserting his total control over fate of the Jews in the Reich and the east, and [by] cow[ing] other interested parties into toeing the line of the RSHA". ^[37] This would explain why most of the meeting was taken up with a long speech by Heydrich, the contents of which would not have been news to most of those present, and why so little time was spent discussing practical questions. It was also important to obtain the consent of the Foreign Ministry and the Four Year Plan, the ministries most likely to object (on diplomatic and economic grounds) to the mass killing of the Jews.

The leading German historian Peter Longerich agrees, but suggests a second motive: to make all the leading ministries accomplices in Heydrich's plan. Professor Peter Longerich (born 1955 in Krefeld, Germany) is a German historian.

"From Heydrich’s point of view," he writes, "the main purposes of the conference were, firstly, to establish the overall control of the deportation programme by the RSHA over a number of important Reich authorities and thereby, secondly, to make the top representatives of the ministerial bureaucracy into accomplices and accessories to, and co-responsible for, the plan he was pursuing. To reiterate: the plan was to exile all Jews in the present and future areas under German rule to Eastern Europe, where they were to be exposed to extraordinarily harsh living conditions and fatally exhausted or murdered. Heydrich had pursued this deportation plan since the beginning of 1941; in July 1941, Göring had given him the authority to execute it; and with the first deportation of Jews from central Europe in October, the first stage in that pan-European design had been realized. With his first invitation to the conference, Heydrich had waited until the second wave of deportations to Riga, Minsk and Kovno had already begun. He clearly wanted to present the representatives of the supreme Reich authorities with a fait accompli". ^[38]

Fate of those attending

Those attending the Wannsee Conference: Top row: Hofmann, Heydrich, Klopfer, Kritzinger, Bühler, Meyer, Neumann, Luther (lower level), Stuckart, Freisler. Second row: Müller, Lange, Schöngarth, Leibbrandt. Bottom left: Eichmann (display at Wannsee Conference House Museum, Berlin)

In order of death

• Reinhard Heydrich died in Prague on 4 June 1942 as a result of injuries sustained during the May 27 attack made by Czech assassins para-dropped from England. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( 7 March 1904 &ndash 4 June 1942) was an SS - Obergruppenführer, chief Events 781 BC - The first historic Solar eclipse is recorded in China. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 927 - Simeon the Great, Tsar of Bulgaria, dies 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the Assassination of top German leader Reinhard Heydrich. Czechs (Češi ˈt͡ʃɛʃɪ archaic Čechové) are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
• Roland Freisler was killed in an air-raid in Berlin in February 1945
• Rudolf Lange was killed in action in Poland in February 1945
• Alfred Meyer killed himself in April 1945
• Heinrich Müller was last seen in Berlin on 29 April 1945. Early life In contrast to most of the Nazi leadership not much beyond basic details is known about Freisler Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Rudolf Lange ( 18 April 1910 &ndash 23 February 1945) was a prominent Nazi official Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Dr Alfred Meyer ( October 5, 1891 &ndash April 11, 1945) was a Nazi official achieving the rank Heinrich Müller (born April 28, 1900, date of death unknown aka "Gestapo Müller" was head of the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar His fate is unknown, but he probably died in Berlin in the next few days
• Martin Luther finished the war in a German concentration camp after falling out with Foreign Minister Ribbentrop in 1943. For other people named Martin Luther see Martin Luther (disambiguation. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946 was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945 After being freed by the Soviets, Luther died in Berlin in May 1945
• Karl Eberhard Schöngarth was executed for war crimes (killing British prisoners of war) in May 1946
• Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger was acquitted of war crimes and died in October 1947
• Josef Bühler was tried in Poland for war crimes and executed in Kraków in July 1948
• Erich Neumann was briefly imprisoned and died in mid-1948
• Wilhelm Stuckart was imprisoned for four years before being released for lack of evidence in 1949. Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth ( April 22, 1903 &ndash May 16, 1946) was a German Nazi associated with The Holocaust Dr Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger ( April 14, 1890 &ndash April 25 1947) was a Nazi politician Dr Josef Bühler (also referred to as Joseph Buehler ( February 16 1904 &ndash August 22, 1948) was state secretary and deputy governor to Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland Erich Neumann (1892 - 1948 was a Nazi Politician. He was born in Forst into a Protestant family Dr Wilhelm Stuckart ( November 16, 1902 &ndash November 15, 1953) was a Nazi Party Lawyer and official a state secretary He was killed in a car accident in November, 1953.
• Adolf Eichmann was executed in Israel in May 1962
• Georg Leibbrandt was charged with war crimes but the case against him was dismissed in 1950. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Georg Leibbrandt ( September 5, 1899 - June 16, 1982) was a scholar and politician in the Nazi Party. He died in June 1982
• Otto Hofmann was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes, but was pardoned in 1954. Otto Hofmann ( March 16 1896 &ndash December 31 1982) was an Austrian SS - Gruppenführer He died in December 1982
• Gerhard Klopfer was charged with war crimes but was released for lack of evidence. Gerhard Klopfer ( February 18 1905 &ndash January 29 1987) was an official of the Nazi Party and assistant to Martin Bormann He became a tax advisor, later dying in January 1987

Dramatisation

The events of the Conference have been dramatised in two films.

• The 1984 German television film Wannseekonferenz (The Wannsee Conference) runs 85 minutes - exactly the length of the conference itself, with a script derived from the minutes of the meeting. The Wannsee Conference (Die Wannseekonferenz is a 1984 German TV movie treating the events of the Wannsee Conference.
• In 2001 the BBC/HBO film Conspiracy starred Kenneth Branagh as Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Eichmann and was also scripted according to the exact timeframe and minutes of the original meeting. Conspiracy is a BBC / HBO television film which dramatizes the 1942 Wannsee Conference. Kenneth Charles Branagh (born 10 December 1960) is an Emmy Award -winning Academy Award -nominated Northern Irish Actor Stanley Tucci Jr (born 11 November 1960) is an American Golden Globe - and Emmy Award -winning Screen Actors Guild - and

The Wannsee conference is central to the plot of the alternate-historical novel Fatherland by Robert Harris. Alternate history or alternative history is a subgenre of Speculative fiction (or Science fiction) and Historical fiction Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller Novel by the English Writer and journalist Robert Harris, which doubles Robert Dennis Harris (born March 7, 1957 in Nottingham) is a best-selling English Novelist.

References

External links

• House of the Wannsee Conference: Memorial and Educational Site
• Facsimile pages of the Wannsee Protocol (in German)
• Adolf Eichmann testifies about the Wannsee Conference (in German with Japanese subtitles)
• Minutes from the Wannsee conference, archived by the Progressive Review