Explaining History – The Wannsee ConferenceWannsee Conference
Full Description:A meeting of senior Nazi officials held in a Berlin villa in January 1942. Contrary to popular belief, this was not where the decision to murder the Jews was made, but where the logistics of the “Final Solution” were coordinated among various government ministries to ensure bureaucratic efficiency. The Wannsee Conference represents the moment genocide became the official policy of the entire German state apparatus. Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, the meeting brought together civil servants from the Foreign Office, the Justice Ministry, and the railways to align their efforts with the SS. The minutes of the meeting are chilling for their use of euphemisms and the business-like manner in which the destruction of 11 million people was discussed.
Critical Perspective:Wannsee is the ultimate example of “desk murder” (Schreibtischtäter). It illustrates that the Holocaust was not carried out solely by sadists in camps, but by highly educated lawyers and bureaucrats sitting around a conference table. They did not discuss whether to kill, but how to do it most efficiently, proving that the machinery of the modern state is capable of facilitating absolute evil while following proper procedure.
Read more and the Nazi Camps
Read more and the Nazi Camps
In January 1942 Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s deputy held a conference at Wannsee in Berlin to order the mass extermination of all of Europe’s Jews. This podcast explores the relationship between the conference and the course of the war.For a detailed analysis of this and the Jewish Holocaust, read Julia Routledge’s excellent new ebook The Genocidal Century: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genocidal-Century-Mass-Killing-20th-ebook/dp/B00PCMAV1E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415438292&sr=1-1 Expl
Listen & Learn: Related Podcast Collections
Explore these curated episode collections to go deeper on the history behind this article: