New Holocaust exhibition to be held where the Final Solution was planned

In 1942, Nazi leaders met in a mansion in Wannsee, Berlin, to plan the Final Solution. 78 years later, a permanent exhibition shows the details of the conference and adds new research findings.

By DEBORAH DAHAN
Villa Wannsee outside Berlin 390 (photo credit: (House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educ)
Villa Wannsee outside Berlin 390
(photo credit: (House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educ)
On January 20, 1942, 15 Nazi leaders gathered at a mansion in a south-suburb of Berlin, in Wannsee, to discuss and coordinate the details of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Among those present at the conference were Adolf Eichmann and SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the Reich Security Main Office. The goal of the conference was to discuss the implementation of the Final Solution and to inform and secure support from, among others, government agencies.
At the conference, Heydrich indicated that about 11 million Jews in Europe would fall under the Final Solution. As such, the Wannsee conference became a symbol of the Holocaust.
Today, exactly 78 years after the conference was held, the House of the Wannsee Conference is inaugurating a permanent exhibition.
The inauguration ceremony will be attended by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Hungarian Holocaust survivor Eva Fahidi.
The new exhibition highlights new research findings on the Holocaust, including on the roles of the different participants of the conference, on Nazis' motives for implementing the Final Solution, and on the sociopolitical climate in Europe at the time that enabled the Holocaust to happen.
One of the center pieces of the exhibition is the copy of the minutes of the 1942 conference, known as the  "Wannsee Protocol." The copy was found by Robert Kempner, a US prosecutor in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, among seized files.
The inauguration will also be held on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp of Auschwitz. On the occasion, world leaders will gather in Jerusalem for the World Holocaust Forum, “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism."


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