# Canonical recap data for Wannsee Conference (1942)
# Source: https://recap.at/1942/wannsee-conference
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: wannsee-conference
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1942/wannsee-conference"
title: Wannsee Conference
aliases:
- Wannsee Conference
- Wannsee Meeting
- Conference on the Final Solution
subtitle: Nazi leadership convened on January 20, 1942 to formally coordinate the logistics of the Holocaust, establishing the systematic extermination protocol.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1942-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1942
decade: 1940
country:
name: Germany
slug: germany
summaryShort: "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 "
summaryLong: 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.
lede: 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.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Haus_der_Wannsee-Konferenz_02-2014.jpg/1280px-Haus_der_Wannsee-Konferenz_02-2014.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Wannsee Conference"
importance: 91
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Date
  value: January 20, 1942
- label: Location
  value: Villa am Großen Wannsee, Berlin-Wannsee
- label: Attendees
  value: 15 Nazi officials including Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich
- label: Primary Document
  value: Heydrich's protocol discovered in German Foreign Office files in 1947
- label: Jews targeted for murder
  value: Approximately 11 million across Nazi-occupied Europe
- label: Meeting duration
  value: 90 minutes
- label: Copies of protocol distributed
  value: "30"
timeline:
- date: 1941-07-31
  title: Göring authorizes genocide planning
  description: Hermann Göring issues directive to Reinhard Heydrich to prepare a comprehensive plan for the 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question.
- date: 1942-01-20
  title: Wannsee Conference convenes
  description: 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.
- date: 1945-05-08
  title: Nazi Germany surrenders
  description: Unconditional surrender ends World War II in Europe. Genocide operations cease; camps are liberated.
- date: 1947-01-01
  title: Heydrich protocol discovered
  description: The minutes of the Wannsee Conference are found in captured German Foreign Office files, becoming critical evidence of premeditated genocide.
- date: 1961-04-11
  title: Eichmann trial begins in Jerusalem
  description: Adolf Eichmann's prosecution uses the Wannsee protocol as central evidence. His testimony provides firsthand account of the conference's role in Holocaust planning.
- date: 1984-01-01
  title: West German TV film 'The Wannsee Conference' airs
  description: Director Heinz Schirk releases dramatization based on Heydrich's protocol, reconstructing dialogue and debate from the meeting.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wannsee_Conference_(film)"
  title: The Wannsee Conference (1984 film)
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: 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.
categories:
- war
taxonomy:
domain: military
eventTypes:
- genocide
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- governance
impactRadius: global
velocity: sudden
predictability: scheduled
intentionality: coordinated
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: conflict
metaDescription: January 1942 Nazi meeting in Berlin that coordinated the systematic genocide of six million Jews across occupied Europe.
wikidataQid: Q832471
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260207232407/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wannsee_Conference_(film)"
  capturedAt: 2026-02-07
  label: The Wannsee Conference (1984 film)
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wannsee_Conference_(film)"
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The New York Times
  publisherSlug: new-york-times
  headline: Nazi Leaders Meet to Coordinate Jewish Policy
  publishedAt: 1942-01-21
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.nytimes.com
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 72
  type: newspaper
  region: United States
- publisher: The Times
  publisherSlug: the-times-london
  headline: Berlin Conference Signals New Anti-Jewish Drive Across Europe
  publishedAt: 1942-01-23
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - thetimes.co.uk
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 75
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Dagens Nyheter
  publisherSlug: dagens-nyheter
  headline: "SV: 'Tyskland samordnar judepolitiken pa ockuperat omrade' / EN: 'Germany Co-ordinates Jewish Policy in Occupied Territory'"
  publishedAt: 1942-01-25
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - dn.se
  excerpt: "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.'"
  significance: 68
  type: newspaper
  region: Sweden
- publisher: Soviet News Agency TASS
  publisherSlug: tass-soviet-news-agency
  headline: Berlin Fascists Escalate Persecution Conspiracy
  publishedAt: 1942-02-02
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - tass.ru
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 78
  type: newspaper
  region: Soviet Union
