Wannsee: The Birthplace of the "Final Solution"

It was July. School was out for the summer and the Berlin S-Bahn was filled with families wearing swim suits and toting bicycles, enthusiastic to take advantage of the beaches and nature trails surrounding Wannsee Lake. You probably have heard of Wannsee before, due to the importance of the Wansnsee Conference in European history. It was a meeting among top Nazi officials that took place on January 20th, 1942 at a beautiful villa. The purpose was to discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution” or Endlösung of the Jewish population of Europe.
I found myself a bit nervous as the bus dropped me off in front of the daunting gate surrounding the House of the Wannsee Conference, which had been converted into a Holocaust museum. Never once did I forget that in that villa, genocide was bureaucratized and systematically packaged to be implemented throughout all regions of Nazi control. As a result, an estimated 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Among that vast number, 6 million of those killed were Jewish and as many as 1.5 million children were murdered.
As I climbed up and down the villa’s grand spiral staircase, my hand gently swept the wood banister. I imagined the Nazi officers doing the same, proud of having been invited to this prestigious meeting and imagining what it meant for the advancement of their careers. I stood at the windows and imagined these officers celebrating a successful conference, looking out these same windows while sipping their cognacs.
I found myself incredibly disconcerted by the idea that something as ugly as genocide could come out of a place so beautiful. I also found myself disconcerted by the incredible abuse of power by the government, led by the blind ambition of men with so much “promise.” Mark Roseman notes in his book, The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting, that among the participants of the Wannsee Conference, “two thirds had a university degree, and over half bore the title of doctor, mainly in law. At the same time, they were strikingly young. Almost half were under forty, only two fifty or over.” (page 67)
All of the men who took part in the Wannsee Conference had money, power, and education – all characteristics which our society teaches us leads to “success” – and yet they created something as barbaric as genocide. I went to Wannsee seeking to expand my understanding of the Holocaust. I left Wannsee with more questions than answers, with a disheartening feeling that it all could happen again.