THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE

The conference was organized by

In July 1941, Heydrich had officially been charged by Reichsmarschall Hermann Gšring with an overall concept about the organsatorial, objective and material arrangements to execute the aimed "Final Solution". That was the very first time the term "Final Solution" was used in an order for the planned organisation of the measures by which the almost complete and systematic extinction of European Jews should come about by organized mass murder.

At the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich wanted to harmonize the organisation and implementation of that "Final Solution" with every office and administrative department that was to participate in it.

The conference members were Heydrich and 15 other people, including high ranking party officials and SS- officers from the "Reichssicherheitshauptamt" (RSHA, "Central Security Office of the Reich"), as well as two representatives of the "Ministry of the Occupied Regions in the East", one representative of the Ministry for the Interior, one representative of the "Commissioner of the Four-Year-Plan", one representative of the Ministry for Justice, one representative of the Office of the "General Governor of the occupied Polish Regions", and one representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann recorded the session. The protocol's language camouflaged the actual content of the conference by words such as "Final Solution" for extermination or "Evacuation" for deportation.

Heydrich, who chaired the conference, explained the prevailing "Emigration of the Jews", which had been enforced on them, but was then stopped on October 23rd, 1941. Heydrich said that the emigration was replaced by evacuation of Jews to the East under Hitler's grant. The evacuation should become the first step within the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"..

According to further details, 11 million Jews should be deported, also from countries that were not in a state of war against the German Reich, countries such as Sweden, Spain or Switzerland. German Jews and Jews from the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia should first be concentrated in transit ghettos before their deportation to Eastern Europe.

It was also discussed at the conference, that "Half Jews" should be enquated with Jews with regard to the "Final Solution" or - in certain cases - be sterilized.