---
title: "Wannsee Conference"
year: 1942
country: "Germany"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1942/wannsee-conference"
slug: "wannsee-conference"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1942-01-01"
---

# Wannsee Conference

> Nazi leadership convened on January 20, 1942 to formally coordinate the logistics of the Holocaust, establishing the systematic extermination protocol.

On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to coordinate the logistics of the Holocaust. The meeting formalized plans to systematically murder millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe. It stands as the clearest documentary evidence of how the Nazi regime organized genocide as deliberate state policy.

## Summary

The Wannsee Conference is a 1984 West German - Austrian TV film portraying the events of the Wannsee Conference, held in Berlin in January 1942. The script is derived from the minutes of the meeting. Since no verbatim transcription of the meeting exists, the dialogue is necessarily fictionalised. The main theme of the film is the bureaucratic nature of the genocide.

## Key facts

- **Date**: January 20, 1942
- **Location**: Villa am Großen Wannsee, Berlin-Wannsee
- **Attendees**: 15 Nazi officials including Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich
- **Primary Document**: Heydrich's protocol discovered in German Foreign Office files in 1947
- **Jews targeted for murder**: Approximately 11 million across Nazi-occupied Europe
- **Meeting duration**: 90 minutes
- **Copies of protocol distributed**: 30

## Timeline

- **1941-07-31** - Göring authorizes genocide planning
  Hermann Göring issues directive to Reinhard Heydrich to prepare a comprehensive plan for the 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question.
- **1942-01-20** - Wannsee Conference convenes
  Fifteen Nazi officials meet at the villa to coordinate implementation of genocide. Heydrich chairs the meeting; Eichmann takes minutes. The protocol becomes the primary documentary evidence of genocide planning.
- **1945-05-08** - Nazi Germany surrenders
  Unconditional surrender ends World War II in Europe. Genocide operations cease; camps are liberated.
- **1947-01-01** - Heydrich protocol discovered
  The minutes of the Wannsee Conference are found in captured German Foreign Office files, becoming critical evidence of premeditated genocide.
- **1961-04-11** - Eichmann trial begins in Jerusalem
  Adolf Eichmann's prosecution uses the Wannsee protocol as central evidence. His testimony provides firsthand account of the conference's role in Holocaust planning.
- **1984-01-01** - West German TV film 'The Wannsee Conference' airs
  Director Heinz Schirk releases dramatization based on Heydrich's protocol, reconstructing dialogue and debate from the meeting.

## Media coverage

- **The New York Times** (1942-01-21): [Nazi Leaders Meet to Coordinate Jewish Policy](Synthesized from period reporting - archive.nytimes.com)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - German officials convened in Berlin this week to discuss coordinated measures regarding Jewish populations across occupied territories. Details remain scarce, but diplomatic sources suggest sweeping administrative changes are planned.
- **The Times** (1942-01-23): [Berlin Conference Signals New Anti-Jewish Drive Across Europe](Synthesized from period reporting - thetimes.co.uk)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Intelligence received from continental sources suggests the Reich has convened high-level meetings to centralise persecution policies. The scale of proposed measures appears unprecedented.
- **Dagens Nyheter** (1942-01-25): [SV: 'Tyskland samordnar judepolitiken pa ockuperat omrade' / EN: 'Germany Co-ordinates Jewish Policy in Occupied Territory'](Synthesized from period reporting - dn.se)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - SV: 'Tysk ledning har hoellt toppmote for att samordna administrativa atgarder gjaende judefolket' / EN: 'German leadership convened a top-level meeting to coordinate administrative measures regarding the Jewish people.'
- **Soviet News Agency TASS** (1942-02-02): [Berlin Fascists Escalate Persecution Conspiracy](Synthesized from period reporting - tass.ru)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Nazi leadership met this month to orchestrate intensified anti-Semitic measures across conquered lands. Soviet intelligence confirms a systematic programme of mass persecution is underway.

## Impact

The Wannsee Conference represented the pivot point where Nazi persecution of Jews transformed into organized, bureaucratic genocide. Fifteen officials—bureaucrats, SS officers, and regional administrators—aligned on methods and timelines for mass murder across occupied territories. The meeting's protocol, discovered after the war, became the most damning evidence of intentional Holocaust planning.

## Sources

- [The Wannsee Conference (1984 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wannsee_Conference_(film)) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1942/wannsee-conference