Wannsee Conference

One of the remarkable but paradoxical aspects of the Holocaust is that it was carried out with great efficiency, involving every part of the German state machinery, and yet it was unplanned. The participants did not follow a blueprint. No single order existed that unambiguously called for the murder of millions. Instead ever more brutal small steps led to the horrendous result. The significance of the Wannsee Conference, held on January 20, 1942, is that it was an occasion when representatives of the institutions of the Nazi state gathered to discuss issues arising from the process of extermination, a process that was already under way. The minutes of the meeting are interesting for what they reveal about the Nazi mentality.

The initiative for the meeting came from Hermann Göring. In July 1941 he asked Reinhard Heydrich, head of the RSHA, to call together representatives of institutions that in one way or another were involved in the task of getting rid of Jews for the purpose of coordinating their activities. These instructions from Göring are the closest we have to an order from the highest level of administration that relates to the extermination of the Jews. Six months would elapse before Heydrich would implement Göring's instructions. It is unclear whether the delay was due to the lack of urgency at a time when extermination was already proceeding or the fact that policies concerning how to get rid of millions of Jews were still in the process of formation.