Difference between revisions of "Wannsee Conference"

The '''Wannsee Conference''' took place in the [[Berlin]] suburb of Wannsee, [[Germany]] in late January 1942 during [[World War II]]. It was called to announce and coordinate plans among the [[Nazi]] ministers and functionaries to implement the [[Holocaust]], or the attempt to murder all [[European]] [[Jews]].<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-wannsee.htm</ref> The conference was chaired by [[Reinhard Heydrich]], SS Reichfuhrer [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s chief deputy. Heydrich had been commissioned by Reichmarshall [[Hermann Göring]] in late July 1941,<ref>Göring had been designated [[Hitler]]'s successor after deputy Fuhrer [[Rudolf Hess]]'s flight to [[England]] in May 1941, hence the order from Göring was interpreted to mean the Reichmarshall outranked the Reichfuhrer in the Nazi hierarchy, although the Fuhrer outranked a Field Marshall in the regular German military.</ref> shortly after the commencement of [[Operation Barbarossa]] or the invasion of the Soviet Republics of [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Russia]], the [[Baltic states]] and [[Caucuses]].  Göring's commission to Heydrich instructed him to formulate a "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Heydrich and his chief assistant, [[Adolf Eichmann]], had worked out plans and details between July 1941 and January 1942, or 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. Minutes to the meeting were kept by Eichmann.