Wannsee Conference was a meeting of Nazi German leaders on Jan. 20, 1942. It took place at Wannsee, a suburb of the German capital of Berlin . At the meeting, high-ranking Nazis gathered to discuss the so-called “final solution of the Jewish question.” This “final solution” called for the murder of every Jew under German rule. The Wannsee Conference was one of many steps that led to the Holocaust , a Nazi campaign of systematic murder during World War II (1939-1945).
Background.
Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists (Nazis) took control of Germany in 1933. Hitler blamed Jews for Germany’s economic and political problems and made anti-Semitism (prejudice against Jews) a government policy. Nazi persecution of German Jews intensified in the late 1930’s. The Nazis set up a system of concentration camps where Jews and others were imprisoned, and sometimes killed, without legal proceedings.
After World War II began, Germany conquered new lands in Europe . As a result, millions of Jews came under German control. The Nazis killed many of the Jews and sent others to concentration camps. In 1941, Nazi leadership finalized the details of a policy to eliminate all Jews under their rule—the “final solution.” The plan for such large-scale murder introduced emotional, physical, and logistical difficulties. Such difficulties became the focus of the Wannsee Conference.
The conference.
On Jan. 20, 1942, top Nazi leaders and government officials gathered in a lakeside villa in Wannsee for a morning meeting followed by lunch. German General Reinhard Heydrich , the chief of the security police, opened the meeting. Adolf Eichmann , director of the transportation of European Jews to Nazi concentration camps and death camps, was one of the officials in attendance.
The goal of the Wannsee Conference was to organize the best and most efficient ways to collect Jews, transport them to camps, and kill them. The conference lasted only about 90 minutes. Nazi leaders had decided that Jews throughout German-occupied territory would be evacuated by train to a large system of camps in eastern Europe. These camps would become centers for slave labor and extermination. The favored method of killing would be poison gas.
Aftermath.
The Nazis targeted all Europe’s Jews for eventual extermination. The most notorious Nazi killing centers—including Auschwitz -Birkenau, Bełżec , and Treblinka —began operating at full strength in the months following the conference. By the time fighting in Europe ended in May 1945, the Nazis had killed some 6 million European Jews. Today, the Wannsee villa that hosted the conference is a Holocaust memorial and museum.
