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Heydrich and his chief assistant, [[Adolf Eichmann]], had worked out plans together between July 1941 and January 1942, between the time Hitler violated the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] by invading the [[Soviet Union]], and Hitler's declaration of war against the [[United States]] following the [[Japanese]] attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] which brought about a general state of world war. Documentation of what was discussed at the secret conference survived the war in the form of minutes transcribed by Eichmann.   

Heydrich and his chief assistant, [[Adolf Eichmann]], had worked out plans together between July 1941 and January 1942, between the time Hitler violated the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] by invading the [[Soviet Union]], and Hitler's declaration of war against the [[United States]] following the [[Japanese]] attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] which brought about a general state of world war. Documentation of what was discussed at the secret conference survived the war in the form of minutes transcribed by Eichmann.   

Having driven most Jews out of Germany in the pre-war years, only about 60,000 remained. With the invasions of [[Poland]] and [[Western Europe]], the Nazi regime considered itself challenged once again with administering territories with large Jewish populations, not only of populations with Jews resident in those occupied territories, but also many Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1930s. Additionally, Eichmann calculated that 11 million [[Jews]] lived in the Soviet Republics which the Germans had invaded to create ''[[Lebensraum]]'' (living room or living space) for the German and [[Aryan]] peoples of [[Western Europe]].

Having driven most Jews out of Germany in the pre-war years, only about 60,000 remained. With the invasions of [[Poland]] and [[Western Europe]], the Nazi regime considered itself challenged once again with administering territories with large Jewish populations, not only of populations with Jews resident in those occupied territories, but also held many Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1930s. Additionally, Eichmann calculated that 11 million [[Jews]] lived in the Soviet Republics which the Germans had invaded to create ''[[Lebensraum]]'' (living room or living space) for the German and [[Aryan]] peoples of [[Western Europe]].

 

Although the specific method of extermination with [[Zyklon B]] gas had not been fully decided upon as yet, the details of segregation into walled-off ghettos and deportation to [[concentration camp]]s, and selection for slave workers in German factories was fully explained.  [[Einsatzgruppen]], or special mobile detachments had already been in operation in Belarus and the Baltic states, wiping out whole Jewish villages of men, women, and children, but the method was considered to slow to accomplish the task of extermination, and impractical for larger urban populations.  

The conference itself did not take very long, highlighting the eagerness and willingness of the Nazis to carry out the [[Holocaust]].

The conference itself did not take very long, highlighting the eagerness and willingness of the Nazis to carry out the [[Holocaust]].

==References==

==References==