Friends and Killers: Decision Makers at the Wannsee Conference
Location
Taylor 400, Madison Union, JMU
Start Date
4-6-2019 10:50 AM
Description
The Wannsee Conference of January 1942 was a meeting of 15 high-ranking Nazi and governmental officials to discuss the implementation of what would be later known as the Holocaust. Given authority by Hermann Göring, Reinhard Heydrich strategically sent invitations to individuals for a meeting to organize a plan amongst the pertinent central agencies. Previous literature grapples with whether the implementation of this “Final Solution” started before the conference or if the conference was a turning point in the Holocaust. However, previous literature has little discussion of how the Wannsee Conference was an attempt by Reinhard Heydrich to get the other fourteen invitees on the same page. My presentation focuses on two main points: the interpersonal relations as they played out at the Wannsee Conference and the role of Reinhard Heydrich. I argue that together with ideology and pragmatics it has been individual relations that strongly influenced choices made at Wannsee.
Presentation Type
Presentation
Friends and Killers: Decision Makers at the Wannsee Conference
Taylor 400, Madison Union, JMU
The Wannsee Conference of January 1942 was a meeting of 15 high-ranking Nazi and governmental officials to discuss the implementation of what would be later known as the Holocaust. Given authority by Hermann Göring, Reinhard Heydrich strategically sent invitations to individuals for a meeting to organize a plan amongst the pertinent central agencies. Previous literature grapples with whether the implementation of this “Final Solution” started before the conference or if the conference was a turning point in the Holocaust. However, previous literature has little discussion of how the Wannsee Conference was an attempt by Reinhard Heydrich to get the other fourteen invitees on the same page. My presentation focuses on two main points: the interpersonal relations as they played out at the Wannsee Conference and the role of Reinhard Heydrich. I argue that together with ideology and pragmatics it has been individual relations that strongly influenced choices made at Wannsee.