The Wannsee Conference is a meeting of government representatives and leaders of the Nazi Party of Germany , held on January 20, 1942 on Lake Wannsee at the Marlir villa in Berlin , located at ul. Am Grossen-Wannsee ( German: Am Großen Wannsee ), d. 56-58. At the Wannsee Conference, ways and means of “the final solution of the Jewish question ” were identified - the program of genocide of the Jewish population of Europe (the term “ Holocaust ” is currently used) [1] .
| Wannsee Conference | |
|---|---|
 Villa Marlir, where the meeting was held. Now a museum | |
| the date of the | January 20, 1942 |
| A place carrying out |  Großer Wannsee , Berlin , Germany |
| Issues Considered | The final solution to the Jewish question |
Background
The genocide of the Jews began even before the Wannsee Conference. On July 31, 1941, German Goering signed an order appointing Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (RSHA), to be responsible for the "final solution of the Jewish question." [2]
In the German occupied territories of the USSR in the second half of 1941, about 1 million Jews were killed by Einsatzgruppes subordinate to the RSHA. So, in August 1941, a mass extermination of deported Jews from Europe was carried out in Kamenetz-Podolsky , then in November a similar action was repeated in the Riga ghetto . On October 23, Jewish emigration from territories controlled by the Nazis was completely banned. In December 1941, the first extermination camp in Chelmno began to function. In the same period, the Belzec extermination camp began to be built, and the first experiments on gas poisoning Cyclone B were carried out in Auschwitz (it was tested on Soviet prisoners of war ) [3] .
Saul Friedlander believes that these events together indicate the existence of a plan for the mass extermination of Jews by this time [3] . A similar opinion is shared by Christopher Browning - he believes that the transition from resettlement plans to plans for total destruction occurred in September-October 1941 [4] . Thus, by the end of 1941, the period of the search for solutions to the "Jewish question" was completed.
Preparation
On November 29, 1941, Heydrich sent invitations to the conference to discuss the quickest and most economical solutions to rid Europe of the Jewish population. In wartime, an early plan for the resettlement of Jews in Europe to Madagascar seemed impractical. Instead, it was planned to gather Jews from all over Europe and deport them to the East to labor camps, where they would die out from harsh conditions, and the rest underwent “appropriate processing” [5] . The conference was attended by a small number of participants - only 15 top leaders of various state institutions: the Gestapo , SS security services, high-ranking members of the NSDAP , representatives of various ministries of Nazi Germany - the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the nationality and resettlement agencies, as well as the institution responsible for distribution Jewish property. More than half of those attending the conference had doctoral degrees from German universities. They were well informed about the policy towards Jews and understood the importance of the contribution of each department to the implementation of this plan. They understood that “evacuation to the east” is a euphemism for deportation to concentration camps, “final decision” means the extermination of European Jews [5] .
The conference was originally scheduled for December 9, 1941 , but then was postponed until January 20, 1942 due to the fact that the Red Army launched a counter-offensive near Moscow on December 5, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 [6] , and Hitler declared war on the United States [7] .
Heydrich chose the cozy and picturesque Berlin Marlir mansion as the venue for the conference. Guests were invited to breakfast at 9:00, the meeting was scheduled for 12:00. An important role in the preparation and conduct of the conference was played by the head of the Gestapo Department IV-B-4 Obersturmbannführer SS Adolf Eichmann [6] .
Conference Progress
The Wannsee Conference lasted only an hour and a half. Two-thirds of the time was taken by the speech of Heydrich [7] , who addressed the audience with a speech in which he noted that
... another possible solution to the Jewish problem is to find a place for the emigration of the Jews - that is, the evacuation of the Jews to the east ... Such actions, however, are regarded as a temporary measure, but practical experience has already been accumulated and is extremely important for the future final solution of the Jewish question. [five]
By the beginning of the conference, Hitler had already made a fundamental decision on the goals and methods of resolving the Jewish question. The conference discussed technical issues. One of them was the problem of mixed Jewish-Aryan marriages - whether to consider people as Jews, one of whose parents is Jewish and the other German, and what to do with those with a Jewish grandmother or grandfather. A decision on this issue was never made and was postponed until the next meeting [8] .
Adolf Eichmann , who composed the protocol of the conference, informed those present that, in accordance with Hitler’s earlier order, Jews should be immediately evicted to Eastern Europe (to the territory of occupied Poland , where most concentration camps were subsequently built). The protocol does not mention gas chambers and crematoriums, but refers to "hard labor, which, hopefully, most will die," and also that survivors should not be left alive, since they will be the nucleus for rebirth [8] .
Each participant received a copy of the protocol. Near the end of the war, almost all participants destroyed their copies, but one copy was found in the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1947 due to the fact that its owner was in a concentration camp at the end of the war.
In 1961, during the trial of Eichmann in Jerusalem, he testified that after the end of the official part of the conference in an informal setting, with cognac, the participants did not hesitate to discuss the results of the meeting without speaking aloud, directly talked about the killings, liquidation and destruction [8] [9] .
Summary Protocol
The protocol clearly outlines the purpose of this conference - the development of a clear plan for the implementation of the "final solution of the Jewish question" and coordination of actions of various departments. The main person responsible for the execution of the plan is Himmler.
Heydrich briefly outlined the main “accomplishments” of Nazi racial politics that day. Among them - the ousting of Jews from all areas of the life of the Reich with the help of the Nuremberg racial laws , the compulsion to emigrate. At the same time, it was noted that the initial policy of forcing Jews to emigrate beyond the Reich did not justify itself. The main reasons for this are the refusal of all potential countries to accept Jewish refugees and the lack of funds for refugees to emigrate. In addition, it was said that, with the outbreak of war, Himmler banned Jewish emigration, considering it dangerous.
A new solution to the Jewish question was proposed: “eviction of Jews to the east,” an expression meaning the extermination of Jews in concentration camps in Poland. A list was presented to the attention of those present - a statistical assessment of the Jewish population in each of the European countries, a total of 11 million Jews. In this list, the number of Albanian Jews is especially noteworthy - 200 people, which testifies to the totality of the "final solution of the Jewish question", which should have taken into account all Jews to the last. None of the 11 million Jews were to remain alive [10] .
Conference Consequences
On January 31, 1942, Adolf Eichmann sent urgent orders to the entire police command, secret security services and SD leaders, containing detailed instructions for preparing the deportation of Jews in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. From this moment begins a systematic and carefully designed genocide.
According to Professor Dan Mihman, the Wannsee Conference was an important milestone in the destruction process, as the actions of the Nazi authorities became more coherent and organized. However, he believes that the decision on mass destruction was not taken at the conference [11] .
In accordance with the policy agreed upon at the conference, the Nazi authorities created a network of death camps designed to kill people. In 1942-1944, 3 million Jews were killed in these camps [12] .
Conference participants and their future fate
| Department | Name | Position | Portrait | Further fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial Ministry of Occupied Eastern Territories | Alfred Meyer | State Secretary of the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories, Gauleiter and Reichsstatgalter | committed suicide on April 11, 1945 in Hessisch Oldendorf ( Lower Saxony ) [13] | |
| Imperial Ministry of Occupied Eastern Territories | Georg Leibrandt | Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Imperial Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories, Reichsamstsleiter | in the summer of 1943 left the civil service, died on June 16, 1982 in Bonn | |
| Imperial Ministry of the Interior | Wilhelm Stuckart | State Secretary of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior | denied in 1947 his participation in the Wannsee meeting. On the loose since 1949. Died in a car accident in 1953 [14] | |
| Four-Year Management | Erich Neumann | State Secretary of the Four-Year Office | released in 1948 for health reasons, died March 23, 1951 [15] | |
| Imperial Department of Justice | Roland Freisler | State Secretary of the Imperial Ministry of Justice | died February 3, 1945 during the American bombardment of Berlin [16] | |
| Governor General Government | Joseph Bühler | Governor General Secretary of State | extradited to Poland and executed by sentence of the Supreme Polish People’s Court in Krakow on August 22, 1948 [17] | |
| Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Martin Luther | Head of the German Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Junior State Secretary | for intrigues against Ribbentrop he was sent to a concentration camp, after his release he died on May 12 or 13, 1945 in Berlin (or was shot dead by a Soviet soldier) [14] [18] [19] | |
| Party Office of the NSDAP | Gerhard Klopfer | Ministerial Director of the Party Chancellery, Oberfuhrer SS | called in 1949 by the court "slightly guilty." Tax Assistant and Lawyer in Ulm. Died in 1987 [14] | |
| Imperial office | Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger | Ministerial Director of the Imperial Chancellery | died shortly after being released for health reasons in 1947 [14] [20] | |
| Imperial Security Directorate (RSHA) | Reinhard Heydrich | Head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security, SS Obergruppenführer | died in Prague on June 4, 1942 from a wound sustained on May 27 during the attempted assassination of Czech patriots abandoned from Great Britain [21] | |
| Imperial Security Directorate (RSHA) | Heinrich Muller | Head of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (Secret State Police ( Gestapo )), SS gruppenfuhrer | Fate is unknown | |
| Imperial Security Directorate (RSHA) | Adolf Eichmann | Head of the "Jewish Department" of the Secret State Police ( Gestapo ), SS Obersturmbannführer | in December 1961 sentenced to death in Jerusalem and executed on May 31, 1962 | |
| SS Headquarters for Race and Settlement | Otto Hoffman | Head of the Main Directorate of the SS for Race and Settlement, SS Gruppenführer | On March 10, 1948, at the trial of the American military tribunal in the case of SS racial institutions, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, in January 1951 his sentence was reduced to 15 years, and in 1954 he was released. He worked as a sales clerk in Württemberg and died in 1982 [14] [22] | |
| Office of the Supreme Head of the SS and the Police in the Governor General | Karl Eberhard Schöngart | Commander of the Security and SD Police in the Governor General, SS Oberfuhrer | executed by the verdict of the British tribunal on May 16, 1946 in Hameln (Lower Saxony) [14] | |
| Office of the Supreme Leader of the SS and Police in the Ostland Reich Commissariat | Rudolph Lange | Commander of the Security Police and the SD of the General Commissariat of Latvia, SS Sturmbannfuhrer | died in battle in February 1945 in Posen ( Poland ) [23] |
Villa Marlir today
The villa currently houses the Holocaust Memorial Center [24] .
Wannsee Conference in Culture
In 2001, Frank Pearson 's film The Conspiracy , dedicated to the conference, was released. The main roles were played by Kenneth Branagh (Heydrich), Stanley Tucci (Eichmann) and Colin Firth (Stuckart).
The conference is mentioned in Robert Harris’s novel Vaterland (1992) on an alternative story. In the plot of the novel, the Nazis who won the war liquidate the Jews in Europe, and before the visit of US President Joseph Kennedy to Germany to sign an alliance with Hitler, the Gestapo is taken to eliminate the participants in this conference themselves in order to destroy witnesses. According to the book the film of the same name was shot .
See also
- The final solution to the Czech question
- Plan ost
Notes
- ↑ Browning, 2004 , p. 309.
- ↑ Goering's written authority to Heydrich on July 31, 1941. Archived May 5, 2010 on Wayback Machine
- ↑ 1 2 Friedländer S. From anti-Semitism to annihilation: the historiography of Nazi politics towards Jews and an attempt to interpret // Daniil Romanovsky, David Zilberklang Yad Vashem: Studies: collection. - Jerusalem: Yad Vashem , 2010 .-- T. 2 . - S. 68-69 . - ISSN 1565-9941 .
- ↑ Christopher Browning . Regarding my book, The Origins of the “Final Decision”: comments on the “final decision”, its premises and the most important consequences
- ↑ 1 2 3 Berenbaum M. . Wannsee Conference Encyclopædia Britannica 's Reflections on the Holocaust. Date of treatment January 9, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Mihman, 2001 , p. 129.
- ↑ 1 2 Briman S. 60 years after Wannsee . Chronicles of Jerusalem (2000). Date of treatment January 9, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Browning, 2004 , p. 413.
- ↑ Adolf Eichmann's testimony about the Wannsee Conference at the trial against him in the District Court of Jerusalem, June-July 1961 . House of the Wannsee Conference. Date of treatment December 12, 2015.
- ↑ Minutes of the discussion of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” on January 20, 1942 . House of the Wannsee Conference. - translating to Russian language. Date of treatment December 12, 2015.
- ↑ Mihman, 2001 , p. 141.
- ↑ The Final Solution of the Jewish Question: Stage One. Preparation for total destruction. Wannsee Conference . Holocaust (Shoa) . Yad Vashem . Date of treatment January 17, 2016.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 321-322.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 60 years after Wannsee
- ↑ Biography of Erich Neumann in “Acts of the Reich Chancellery of the Weimar Republic”
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 546.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 72-73.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 313.
- ↑ Döscher, 1993 , s. 190.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 284.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 141.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 188.
- ↑ Zalessky, 2005 , p. 309.
- ↑ House of the Wannsee Conference . Date of treatment January 9, 2016.
Literature
- Zalessky K.A.NSDAP. Power in the Third Reich. - M .: Eksmo , 2005 .-- 672 p. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-09780-5 .
- Mihman D. Wannsee Conference // Catastrophe of European Jewry. - 1. - Tel Aviv: Open University of Israel , 2001. - T. 3. - ISBN 965-06-0233-X .
- Browning CR . The Origins of the Final Solution The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 . - Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press , 2004. - 616 p. - ISBN 978-0-8032-1327-2 .
- Döscher H. Martin Luther - Aufstieg und Fall eines Unterstaatssekretärs. - Darmstadt: WBG, 1993 .-- ISBN 3534801229 .
Links
- Официальный сайт музея в Ванзее
- Ванзейская конференция и геноцид европейских евреев (pdf)
- Факсимиле Протокола (нем.)
- Minutes from the Wannsee conference , archived by the Progressive Review