House of the Wannsee Conference

This page is devoted to my visit to the "infamous House of the Wannsee Conference." To quote from their Wannsee Conference web site:

On January 20th, 1942, fifteen high-ranking civil servants and SS-officers met in this house to discuss plans of "The Final Solution" of the Jewish question in Europe, the decision to deport the Jews of Europe to the East and murder them.

This conference was notable because of its subject matter, but also because a complete "protocol" or summary of the discussion and conclusions was recovered after the war. This summary is on just 15 typewritten pages and is fascinating reading. (The document is in German, but the web site makes an English translation available.)

The text is horrifying, disturbing in its cold and logical approach to the Jewish "problem". Here are three examples that stood out, but I recommend reading the entire document:

First, the disdain they showed for countries that define "Jew" based on beliefs:

The numbers of Jews in the different countries listed here, however, pertain only to those who are of Jewish faith (Glaubensjuden) as definitions of Jews along racial lines (Begriffsbestimmungen der Juden nach rassischen Grundsätzen) are in part still lacking there.

Second, the intention to work Jews to death, and the fear that at the end only the strongest would still be alive, making it especially necessary to kill them:

In the course of the final solution (Endlösung) and under appropriate direction, the Jews are to be utilized for work in the East in a suitable manner. In large labor columns and separated by sexes, Jews capable of working will be dispatched to these regions to build roads, and in the process a large number of them will undoubtedly drop out by way of natural attrition.

Those who ultimately should possibly get by will have to be given suitable treatment because they unquestionably represent the most resistant segments and therefore constitute a natural elite that, if allowed to go free, would turn into a germ cell (Keimzelle) of renewed Jewish revival. (Witness the experience of history.)

And third, their obsessive concern with persons of mixed Jewish blood. We Americans should remember that the Nazis had no monopoly on such fixations -- demonstrated by our own classification as black of anyone with one thirty-second or more Negro blood, a definition in effect in Louisiana until 1983.

Note that a "first-degree" mixed race person (Mischling, plural: Mischlinge) results from a Jew and a Non-Jew, that is, half-Jewish. A "second-degree" Mischling results from the marriage of a first-degree Mischling and a German (where for them "German" means non-Jew), so such a person would be one-quarter Jewish.

Second-degree Mischlinge are in principle classed with persons of German blood, with the exception of the following cases, in which the second-degree Mischlinge are considered equivalent to Jews:

1. Descent of the second-degree Mischling from a bastard marriage (both spouses being Mischlinge).
2. Racially especially unfavorable appearance (rassisch besonders ungünstiges Erscheinungsbild) of the second-degree Mischling, which will class him with the Jews on external grounds alone (ihn schon äußerlich zu den Juden rechnet).
3. Especially bad police and political rating of the second-degree Mischling, indicating that he feels and behaves as a Jew.

Item b) above is simply amazing; it would make a good line in a Mel Brooks movie.

This house is now a memorial and education center (Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte). The materials displayed are extensive, covering the entire Nazi period. I didn't have time to go over everything carefully, but I was able to buy a catalog of all their materials for later study. One of John's roommates, a German in her early 20's, said that school groups frequently go to this house, usually with careful study and preparation for the trip.

There is a German film, die Wannsee-Konferenz, based on the protocol, which gave them quite a bit to work with: the participants and much of their deliberations. However, the movie has numerous details that I assume were just made up.

At the time of this conference, in January of 1942, the Germans thought that the war was going fairly well for them. The invasion of Russia started on 22 June 1941. The war with Russia was supposed to end decisively in 4 months or so. The Germans had become bogged down in the Russian winter of 1941-42, but they had secure fronts and a good position early in 1942 and had reason to be optimistic. In retrospect we now know that this winter was "not merely a turning-point, but the beginning of the end" for the Germans. [Kershaw, Hitler, Vol. II, p.457.] The terrible defeat at Stalingrad was still nearly a year in the future.

The aerial photos below show the house at the center of each picture -- a large gray building in the left picture. The right picture has a green arrow pointing to the center of Berlin.

House of the Wannsee Conference (aerial views) (Large gray building in the center on the left and in the center of the remaining pictures.)

My Trip to the House of the Wannsee Conference

I took the S-Bahn line S7 from Friedrichstraße to Wannsee in the Southwest of Berlin. There is a bus to the "House", but it was a nice day, so I decided to walk along the edge of the Großer Wannsee, the part of the large lake that borders on the House. The aerial photos above, as well as two pictures below, show this border. This area is a wealthy section of town, with a number of "yacht clubs" and fancy housing. The first picture at the left shows the Wannsee railway station where I started my walk. The next picture shows a sculpture with sailboats in the background. I liked the swan, and in the picture it's hard to see the black ducks at first. I missed a turn and went the wrong way along a busy street before realizing my mistake (my Berlin map didn't cover this section). But without my mistake I would have missed this wonderful McDonald's at the top right. The original McDonald's had actual "golden arches" like this one, but you don't see these in America anymore, and I'm assuming this one is unique to Germany.

The left two pictures on the second row show fancy condos with an all-glass view of the water and the boats, as well as a view of the occupants for pedestrians. The red building at the right of the second row is an amazing castle next to the "house".

The third row shows the House of the Wannsee Conference itself. The plaque says "The infamous (berüchtigte) Wannsee Conference took place in this house in January 1942. Dedicated to the memory of the Jewish fellowmen (Mitmenschen) killed by the National Socialist tyranny".

Trip to the House of the Wannsee Conference