House of the Wannsee Conference

House of the Wannsee Conference - darkometer rating : 7 - On the surface just a stately villa in a pretty lake-side outer district of Berlin – but for its significance in the planning of the darkest chapter of history it can hardly be matched. It was here that the "final solution", i.e. the Nazis ' industrial murder of the European Jews was co-ordinated. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The so-called Wannsee Conference took place here in this Berlin villa on 20 January 1942 (after having been postponed from an earlier December 1941 date). 'Conference' is actually too big a word – it was more a "business meeting", with just 15 participants, and it only lasted about an hour and a half. But the significance of the subject matter discussed and organized at this meeting could hardly be graver. Often you can read that it was here at this conference that the Nazis decided to eliminate the European Jews. That's not quite correct either. That basic decision had already been taken at a higher level, namely by Hitler himself, and his closest ally in this matter, Heinrich Himmler (see SS ). In fact, the systematic murder of Jews had already begun as well, namely in the form of the mass shootings of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen in the newly occupied territories in the East. Only, these mass executions were already being criticized as inefficient and detrimental to the morale of the soldiers as well as to the military plans in general. Himmler himself had apparently come to such a conclusion after witnessing a mass shooting in the East. The purpose of the Wannsee Conference was thus more one of co-ordination and planning of more efficient means to end the "Jewish question" once and for all.