Historian tells of Nazis toasting Final Solution (not posted under philosophy)

UPI ^

[Dallas]

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales, June 6 (Reuters) - For the Nazi hierarchy, it was a good meeting. They toasted the Final Solution with a glass of brandy.

"After agreeing that 11 million European Jews would be murdered, they retired for cognac," said historian Mark Roseman, reflecting on a historic encounter at a grand villa in the wooded suburbs of Berlin in 1942.

For 15 high-level civil servants, SS officers and Nazi party officials, the gathering on the shores of the Wannsee lake was a chance to put the unthinkable into practice.

Though many Jews had been rounded up and killed before, the historical significance of the meeting lies partly in the fact a record of it survived after the war as proof of a Nazi masterplan to exterminate all Europe's Jews in death camps.

Historians believe Wannsee was the moment where the Final Solution was formally organised. And although Hitler did not attend, most believe that the decisions were made at the Nazi leader's behest and knowledge. "It was a crucial and sinister step on the way to the Final Solution," said Roseman, talking to Reuters after laying out in chilling detail at Britain's leading literature festival his research on his book -- "The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution".

"It was one of the most shocking meetings of the 20th century," he said of the notorious Wannsee Protocol, the minutes of a meeting that were only discovered by chance in 1947 by Robert Kempner, a Jewish civil servant who had fled to the United States before war broke out and the Holocaust began.

"Is such a thing possible?" asked his horrified American boss, General Telford Taylor.

It was and this is what appalled and fascinated Roseman: "What we have here is a cohort of young, ambitious racists looking for an Aryan-dominated Europe," he said.

The image of Adolf Eichmann and security chief Reinhard Heydrich toasting the success of the meeting afterwards is an image that haunted Roseman, who visited Wannsee when researching the book.

"I went back to the villa. The original lift is still there. This lift had carried Heydrich and Eichmann to the meeting. That to me was unbelievable," he told Reuters in an interview.

As historians reflect on the importance of that meeting on taking Nazi Germany down the road to genocide and infamy, Roseman has never lost sight of the enormity of the slaughter and the crisp and efficient way bureaucrats launched the logistics of murder. "At the very end, it eludes human understanding," he said.

And with the rise of the far right in Europe, he felt there was an added "Lest We Forget" urgency as today's children reflect on what their grandparents may have done.

The shocking immediacy of the wholesale slaughter may have faded but he said: "It is important in Germany and elsewhere that the horrors of the past should not be lost sight of."

[Plummz]

Just came out w/in the past year, I believe it's on DVD now.

[satan]

Nice name!

[LarryLied]

And with the rise of the far right in Europe, he felt there was an added "Lest We Forget" urgency as today's children reflect on what their grandparents may have done.

Disgraceful.

[Argus]

The original German film THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE is better than the HBO English-language remake. It is available for rental on video, is more comprehensive and authentic, and absolutely chilling in its matter-of-fact tone.

[ruoflaw]

Some do rewrite history but some of us stick doggedly to historical facts because we believe that truth is so much more interesting than fiction! Don't give up reading history because of the crimes of a small group!

[ruoflaw]

Thanks!

[johnny7]

The date may be correct of the meeting but the “Final Solution” wasn't completed untill the gas chambers were constructed.

The nazis were using the “Einsatzgruppen” and firing squads to kill Jews early in the war.

Many Wermacht soldiers began going crazy killing Russian Jews day after day.

The use of trailers with the exhaust piped in was a slow process.

It was the evil Eichmann who perfected the mass slaughter of European and Russian Jewry.

[strela]

Yes. More chills than "Silence of the Lambs," because it really happened.

[ohioman]

Europe is doomed by the far left this time. They'll probably finally get it right after another 50 Million perish.

[ohioman]

"Beyond a doubt, the real leader in racism was the US."

You must have learned that in college.

[aristeides]

Field Marshall Erich von Manstein took the name von Manstein when he was adopted into that family. He was born von Lewinski, and seems to have descended from a grand rabbi of Warsaw. Something to bear in mind in view of the discussion about part-Jews that took place at the Wannsee Conference.

[aristeides]

No, I didn't see the post on Papa Doc. I'm surprised he would have said 95% of the Haitian population has some white blood. After they killed off all the whites in Haiti, didn't the blacks then try to go after the mulattos too? Granted, they didn't wipe them out, and for long periods of Haitian history the mulattos have been in control, but I thought there was great tension between mulattos and blacks in Haiti.

[x]

I did not know that Hitler had his own Lewinski.

He was apparently, a von Lewinski by birth, so any Jewish ancestors must have been further back.

[1234]

if you speak german, the original is probably better; but each has its own slant so that you shouldn't hesitate to see the english version-if no german capability, i suggest that subtitles are tedious for most, and the remake gets the job done well enough.

[swarthyguy]

For a really chilling, albeit banal and slightly boring flick, check out The Wannsee Conference. Coffee and pastry, Herr Heydrich, before we discuss skins sticking to metal benches on trains to Poland in the winter?

[swarthyguy]

Agreed; it was made in the late 80's i believe.

[ArcLight]

Never saw the original Wannsee film. The Branagh remake was grim enough for me.