Image: The villa Am Großen Wannsee 56–58, where the Wannsee Conference was held, is now a memorial and museum. (Public Domain)

On this day in history, the Wannsee Conference, where 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in a Berlin suburb to discuss and coordinate the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

On this day in history, the Wannsee Conference, where 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in a Berlin suburb to discuss and coordinate the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

The “Final Solution” was the code name for the deliberate, systematic, physical annihilation of the European Jews. At some time during the summer of 1941, it is believed that Adolf Hitler gave the go-ahead for this European-wide strategy for mass murder. On July 31, 1941, just after the German conquering of the Soviet Union, Nazi Reichsmarschall Herman Goring ordered the director of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, to ensure that all the various government and military departments worked together in the implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

Initially, the mass murder of Jews happened after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Groups like the mobile killing units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, and Order Police Battalions, were dispatched to the occupied Soviet Union for the express purpose of murdering all Jews. The extermination of roughly one million Jews happened before the plan of action for the Final Solution was fully implemented.

 Heydrich’s mission was to create a plan for a “total solution of the Jewish question” in regions under German control and to coordinate the participation of all involved government and military organizations. The result was the General Plan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for the deportation of populations in occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for use as slave labor or to be slaughtered. The attendees of the Wannsee Conference determined that the Jewish population of the Soviet Union to be about five million, including nearly three million in Ukraine. The initial plan was to implement General Plan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union. European Jews were to be deported to the occupied parts of the Soviet Union, where they would be worked to death in road-building projects.

When it became apparent that the Soviet Union was not to be subdued so quickly, it became the goal of the Wannsee Conference to come up with an alternative. The new plan called for the rounding up of all Jews throughout Europe, transporting them eastward, and organizing them into labor gangs. The work and living conditions would be sufficiently hard to kill large numbers by “natural diminution”; those who survived would be “treated accordingly.”

The men participating in the conference were among the elite of the Reich. Eight of them held doctorates from German universities. They all understood the policy regarding Jews. They all knew that the cooperation of their various departments was vital if they were going to make such an ambitious plan to succeed.

Among the agencies represented at the conference were the Department of Justice, the Gestapo, the Race and Resettlement Office, the Foreign Ministry, the SS, and the office in charge of allocating Jewish property. Also attending the meeting was the Polish occupation administration, whose regions included more than two million Jews a representative of the General Government, the head of Heydrich’s office for Jewish affairs, Adolph Eichmann, prepared the conference notes.

Heydrich stated, “Another possible solution of the (Jewish) problem has now taken the place of emigration – the evacuation of the Jews to the east…. Such activities are, however, to be considered as provisional actions, but practical experience is already being collected, which is of great importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish problem.”

Those gathered needed little explanation. They knew that “evacuation to the east” was another phrase for concentration camps and that the “final solution” was to be the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews, which is now referred to as the Holocaust. The final statement of the Wannsee Conference never directly stated extermination. However, within a few months of the meeting, the Nazis had created the first concentration camps installed with poison-gas chambers in Poland. The final responsibility for the entire project was given to Heinrich Himmler and his SS and Gestapo.

One copy of the Wannsee Conference Protocol with circulated minutes survived the war. It was found in March 1947 among various files at the German Foreign Office. It was used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials. The Wannsee House, the site of the conference, is now a Holocaust memorial.

The “Final Solution” was the code name for the deliberate, systematic, physical annihilation of the European Jews. At some time during the summer of 1941, it is believed that Adolf Hitler gave the go-ahead for this European-wide strategy for mass murder. On July 31, 1941, just after the German conquering of the Soviet Union, Nazi Reichsmarschall Herman Goring ordered the director of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, to ensure that all the various government and military departments worked together in the implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

Initially, the mass murder of Jews happened after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Groups like the mobile killing units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, and Order Police Battalions, were dispatched to the occupied Soviet Union for the express purpose of murdering all Jews. The extermination of roughly one million Jews happened before the plan of action for the Final Solution was fully implemented.

 Heydrich’s mission was to create a plan for a “total solution of the Jewish question” in regions under German control and to coordinate the participation of all involved government and military organizations. The result was the General Plan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for the deportation of populations in occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for use as slave labor or to be slaughtered. The attendees of the Wannsee Conference determined that the Jewish population of the Soviet Union to be about five million, including nearly three million in Ukraine. The initial plan was to implement General Plan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union. European Jews were to be deported to the occupied parts of the Soviet Union, where they would be worked to death in road-building projects.

When it became apparent that the Soviet Union was not to be subdued so quickly, it became the goal of the Wannsee Conference to come up with an alternative. The new plan called for the rounding up of all Jews throughout Europe, transporting them eastward, and organizing them into labor gangs. The work and living conditions would be sufficiently hard to kill large numbers by “natural diminution”; those who survived would be “treated accordingly.”

The men participating in the conference were among the elite of the Reich. Eight of them held doctorates from German universities. They all understood the policy regarding Jews. They all knew that the cooperation of their various departments was vital if they were going to make such an ambitious plan to succeed.

Among the agencies represented at the conference were the Department of Justice, the Gestapo, the Race and Resettlement Office, the Foreign Ministry, the SS, and the office in charge of allocating Jewish property. Also attending the meeting was the Polish occupation administration, whose regions included more than two million Jews a representative of the General Government, the head of Heydrich’s office for Jewish affairs, Adolph Eichmann, prepared the conference notes.

Heydrich stated, “Another possible solution of the (Jewish) problem has now taken the place of emigration – the evacuation of the Jews to the east…. Such activities are, however, to be considered as provisional actions, but practical experience is already being collected, which is of great importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish problem.”

Those gathered needed little explanation. They knew that “evacuation to the east” was another phrase for concentration camps and that the “final solution” was to be the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews, which is now referred to as the Holocaust. The final statement of the Wannsee Conference never directly stated extermination. However, within a few months of the meeting, the Nazis had created the first concentration camps installed with poison-gas chambers in Poland. The final responsibility for the entire project was given to Heinrich Himmler and his SS and Gestapo.

One copy of the Wannsee Conference Protocol with circulated minutes survived the war. It was found in March 1947 among various files at the German Foreign Office. It was used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials. The Wannsee House, the site of the conference, is now a Holocaust memorial.

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