Wannsee House

On January 20, 1942, fifteen high ranking Nazi officials met at a villa outside of Berlin to formalize plans for the genocide of all European Jewry, known as the "Final Solution". Those who attended were highly educated. Eight of them had PhD's and almost all came from a privileged middle or upper class background. The Conference only lasted about ninety minutes. SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich produced reports on Jewish emigration since the Nazis seized power and then summarized the "Jewish problem" and shared his vision of the "Final Solution".