The Wannseekonferenz is a dark moment in German history. It took place on January 20th, 1942 in the Villa Marlier at the Wannsee lake of Berlin. Delegates of different government institutions were invited to a ‘meeting followed by breakfast’ and coordinated the deportation of all Jewish citizens of Europe to extinction camps in the East. The Holocaust itself was already decided by that time, but the conference was used to define the victims and the schedule in more detail; it was the administration of the so called ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question‘ (‘Endlösung der Judenfrage‘).
When it became clear that World War II would be lost, the Nazi regime tried to destroyed all proof of their inhumane deeds. One of the 30 copies of the protocol of the conference was discovered in an archive and documents the participants and the results of the Wannseekonferenz. Some of the actors didn’t survive the war, a small number was punished for other crimes, only six of the participants were punished because of their responsibility for the Holocaust. The Villa Marlier is today a memorial and museum named Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Here you can learn about history at the place where it happened. From the S-Bahn stop Wannsee you can take bus 114 to the museum.
Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz
Villa Marlier
Am Großen Wannsee 56-58
14109 Berlin
Germany
https://www.ghwk.de
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