A Lakeside Villa with a Chilling History

Thursday, November 19th

Today our class made an excursion out to the site of the Wannsee Conference. The villa where the conference took place is still intact, and though most of the original furniture was stolen in the wake of WWII, the majority of the interior remained as it was in the 1930s. The exhibition was split into separate rooms, each one with a different theme, all relating to the holocaust and the development and execution of the “final solution.” Professor Wagner stressed the significance of the specific men who attended the Wannsee Conference, and the representative from the exhibition touched on this as well. Almost all of the attendees were Staatsekretariatat, positions which might be compared to the cabinet in American government, the bulk of the policy forming government officials consisted of roughly 50 state secretaries. The majority of the men were relatively young, half were under 40 and only two were older than 50, meaning that the majority of these men built their political careers under National Socialism and were probably truly indoctrinated believers in Hitler’s system. This is further supported by the fact that the majority of the men were well educated, two thirds had degrees and half were doctors, mostly in law. Several groups were represented amongst the attendees. The first group was comprised of ministry officials concerned with the “Jewish Question” including a few specifically involved in policy towards Mischlinge, or mixed race Jews. Another group represented Heydrich’s office, including Gestapo Chief Muller, as well as Eichmann and several other security officers. Officials from the SS and a few Party Members especially concerned with the Jewish Question were also present. A fourth group of men had been invited at the last minute; these were men from agencies responsible for the civilian administration of occupied territories in the East. This specific list of attendees is important because it supports the argument that this conference was set up to inform these men about Hitler’s decision to eradicate the Jewish race throughout Europe. Years later during their trials, most of these men claimed the meeting was only concerned with the “evacuation” and “deportation” of Jews. However, this was obviously not the case, as the list of attendees did not include representatives from the military or any transportation specialists, who certainly would have been in attendance had the transport of hundreds of thousands of Jews been the focus of the Wannsee Conference. The exhibition included photos and biographical information about each of the attendees, as well as his position in Hitler’s regime. Presented in this way, it was much easier to make connections between the men in attendance, and the true purpose of the Wannsee Conference – this exhibition was extremely effective in this way.