Special Sub-Topic: Wannsee Protocol Click Here To Play: Wannsee Protocol

On what date did the conference to draft the protocol take place?

January 20, 1942. The meeting took place just outside Berlin at Wannsee, a lakeside community, in the villa Marlier. The home had been bought by the SS in 1940, from Friedrich Minoux, a coal financier who had been arrested for embezzlement. The home is now a museum, known as the "Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference". It opened in 1992, on the 50th anniversary of the conference.

Who was the organizer and chair of the meeting?

Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was charged by Goering to come up with a "final solution to the Jewish question." Heydrich quickly collected data, consulted with other military and government officials, and came up with a plan he presented at the conference. Heydrich was an SS-Obergruppenfuehrer or Lieutant-General of the S.S. He was wounded in an assassination attempt by Czech resistance fighters in May of 1942 and died a few days later.

Who was responsible for transcribing the minutes of the meeting and handling all documents and communications resulting from the meeting?

Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was noted in the Third Reich for organizing transportation to Nazi death camps. He fled to Italy after the war and with the help of Archbishop Alois Hudal's underground network, eventually went to Argentina. While in Argentina, Eichmann was located by the Israeli Mossad. He was subsequently kidnapped and smuggled to Israel. Once in Israel, he was tried, convicted and executed for crimes against humanity (among other charges). He was reportedly unrepentant, even as he went to the gallows. Luther, Mayer and Stuckart were all participants in the conference. Luther was a representative of the Foreign Ministry. Meyer was a representative of the General Government of the Occupied Eastern Territories. Stuckart represented the Interior Ministry.

Which nation did the protocol conclude was "Free of Jews"?

Estonia. By 1941, the Nazis had already begun to purge Jews in the Baltic Republics, rounding them up and transporting them to Latvia. Rudolf Lange, a Major in the SS, and attendee of the conference commanded a unit in Latvia which was responsible for the deaths of at least 60,000 Jews from the Baltic republics, prior to the full fledged establishment of the concentration camp system there. Lange, like a majority of the participants in the conference, was a lawyer by trade.

Which of these alternatives or compliments to genocide was NOT proposed at the conference?

Forced marriage. Forced emigration was already in place, but was recognized as only a temporary solution and was being scaled back according to the Protocol, in favor of "evacuation" (to concentration camps). Forced sterilization was forwarded as a means to prevent any further Jewish children from being born to those who were fortunate enough to be given an exception to allow them to remain. Forced labor was also a tactic embraced by the Protocol. Able bodied Jews were to be sent to the East to assist with building roads, which would also provide a means of "natural attrition" by working them to death.

What was the suggested destination of Jews over 65 years of age?

Theresienstadt. The Protocol provided for Jews over 65 and those with certain exemptions (wounded and decorated German veterans) to be housed in the ghetto of Theresienstadt. The German occupied town of Terezin, about 90 miles north of Prague, was chosen to be the site. It had two fortresses and had served as a prison prior to German occupation. After deciding to transform the town of approximately 7,000 into a camp which would hold over 60,000 Jews, it was renamed Theresienstadt. It was liberated on May 3, 1945.

Which already existing German laws were used as a basis for determining if a person of "mixed blood" was allowed to remain in Germany?

Nuremberg Laws. Known as the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor”, the Nuremberg laws set forth legal framework to exclude Jews from German society. Among the prohibitions of the law were forbidding marriage and extra-marital affairs between Germans and Jews as well as restrictions on Jews employing Germans. Hilhelm Stuckart was one of the principal authors of the law. Stuckart also helped craft the "The Reich Citizenship Law", which stripped Jews of their German citizenship in 1940.

What term did the Protocol use for removing Jews to concentration camps?

Evacuation. The terms evacuate and evacuation are repeatedly used in the Protocol. No matter what the verbiage, the "Final Solution" could not be mistaken as anything but extermination. In the HBO film account of the conference, "Conspiracy", Rudolf Lange remarks that he feels that he "evacuated" thousands of Jews in Latvia - by shooting them.

What was the solution proposed to deal with legal actions regarding marriages between Germans and "mixed blood" Jews?

Dissolve the marriages. In order to avoid a flood of divorce and property actions, which would cripple the German justice system, the Protocol suggested that the legislature declare of all mixed marriages that “these marriages are dissolved". The Protocol also went into discussions of certain combinations of exceptions for those of mixed blood and mixed marriages, including even one provision that refused exception for those who had mixed blood and Jewish physical features which would "class him with the Jews on external grounds alone".

When was the conference originally scheduled to be held?

December 9, 1941. There has been no definitive reason accepted for the delay in holding the conference, but the date does seem significant. It has been noted that Pearl Harbor was bombed less than 48 hours prior, making a declaration of war against the United States a certainty, once the U.S. declared war on Japan. Also, the Soviet Union began a counter-offensive in early December 1941.