The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting

Genocide is never easy to explain, especially when the perpetrators appear to be an educated elite, enjoying many of the trappings of civilisation. In The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting, Mark Roseman brilliantly explores this paradox, describing the night, 60 years ago, when the Nazi top brass met over cognac and cigars in a Berlin suburb, and drew up the Protocol that implemented the unprecedented and chilling brutality of the "final solution" to the "Jewish question".

Roseman, the prize-winning author of The Past in Hiding, uses the anniversary of Wannsee not only to reconstruct the events of that evening and examine the differing backgrounds and motives of those who took part. He also provides an exhaustive investigation of the longer-term genesis of Nazi policy towards the Jews, from repression and denial of civil rights, to random acts of military pillage and execution, through to deportation and emigration. Evidence for and against the influence of Hitler is carefully sifted, and the timing of the onset of the "final solution" amidst the faltering German offensive against Russia and the entry of the USA into the war is meticulously reconstructed. The book does not offer any easy answers. Wannsee, Roseman concludes, did no more or less than transfer Jewish repatriation policy from the civilian authorities to the SS. But by then the Holocaust was already in full swing, and barbarism was the order of the day. For a clear and cogent account of the most terrible years in 20th-century history, this book is a must.--Miles Taylor

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An interesting correction to the traditional view - Rated
I'd always thought that the whole idea of the Final Solution was decided at Wannsee. Professor Roseman's account shows that this view is not correct. By Wannsee, the Nazis' monstrous designs on the Jews had already taken rough shape, including the idea of their wholesale slaughter. Wannsee merely confirmed the way ahead. Most of all, it confirmed the central position of the RSHA (the Reich Security Ministry) and of its dreadful head, Reinhard Heydrich in the whole affair. As only one copy of the minutes survived the war and as any statements on the meeting from those present were biased by self-interest and/or -justification, Professor Roseman's book amounts to an interesting detective story, teasing out the clues as to what actually took place. Much involved a discussion of the treatment of Mischlinge, people who were partially Jewish, or who had Jewish spouses. However, one thing is certain; after Wannsee, the slaughter of European Jewry moved into high gear.

Of course, the really scary thing is that the men who gathered at the Wannsee villa were highly educated and cultivated men, many with higher degrees. It's an appalling reminder of the dangers of fanaticism of any kind, and of the fact that, while one can be sincere, one can also be sincerely, completely wrong. It's a lesson we still haven't learned.

astounding book - Rated
brilliantly written and a must read for people interested in the most daring assasination of world war 2 which rocked the german reich to the core. the incredible bravery of the czech agents and the people who watched thousands of their country men rounded up and shot sends a powerfull message to all readers

Through a glass, darkly - Rated
Ever since its discovery in 1947 by Robert Kempner, the American Nuremberg prosecutor, these minutes of a meeting held in Berlin on 20 January 1942 have been considered to be virtual proof of the determination of the Nazis to murder each and every Jew that came within their reach. Roseman presents a much more critical view of the matter.

His book is full of remarks which modify, question, or refute past interpretations. He quotes the German historian Eberhard Jäckel who wonders why this meeting was ever convened, he notes that the documentation concerning this event is far from comprehensive and that we can only speculate on many aspects, he states that there is no single unambiguous document ordering the annihilation of all Jews (David Irving will have noted this with some satisfaction), he deplores the general lack of official documents, and he stresses the absence of important agencies or institutions which should have been present at any sort of decisive meeting of this kind: the German Railways, the Wehrmacht, or the Führer Chancellery. Somehow, though, he manages to overlook the curious lack of Heydrich's name on the list of the persons attending.

In spite of the general vagueness surrounding the gathering, Roseman concludes that from the time of the meeting onward, the word „Endlösung" came to signify the death of all European Jews, because the „Protokoll" expresses this, albeit in a round-about, bureaucartic fashion. It is important to stress, though, that „death", here, is not necessarily identical to „killing". The considerations regarding the fate of various groups of Jews bear this out, one half of the 15 pages are devoted, after all, to the fairly difficult question of deciding how Jews and their descendants were to be classified. When all is said and done, Roseman comes to the conclusion that the conference cannot be regarded as a moment of decision; for him, it is merely an indication that something had changed in the political landscape.

The „Protokoll" itself has, for decades now, occupied centre stage, obscuring other important aspects of the matter. We must remember that the meeting had been convened by Heydrich on the grounds that Göring had asked him, in July of 1941, to draw up a comprehensive plan for the final solution of the Jewish question, „in the near future". The January meeting was to lay the groundwork for the plan, others were to follow; Roseman mentions two more such dates, March and October 1942 but does not discuss them in detail. In view of the six months which Heydrich let go by before calling a first meeting, one cannot but admire Göring's patience in the matter, or Himmler's lack of concern when the Reichsmarschall intervened without respecting the line of command. In the end, after Heydrich's assassination in May of 1942, no comprehensive plan was ever presented to Göring - nor to anyone else, for that matter.

In this context, Roseman mentions, in a footnote, the so-called „Schlegelberger Document" which states that Hitler had rejected the „Final Solution" as we perceive it today. He refers the reader to David Irving's homepage for more information while remaining himself quite sceptical in this regard.

The German edition of Roseman's book contains an additional chapter in which Norbert Kampe, the director of the Wannsee Memorial Institute in Berlin, discusses the differences among the reproductions of the various documents that form the basis of our assessment of this event. Kampe strongly crticizes mistakes and unwarranted alterations that appear in every single one of the documents presented by Kempner, but states that the text of these reproductions is always in accordance with the originals. This is not, strictly speaking, a material analysis of the documents themselves. In view, however, of a number of questions concerning the authenticity of some of these papers, that have never been scientifically investigated, a thorough review of these points is still highly desirable.

Aside from this point, one should mention a further difficulty which makes an appreciation of the conference cumbersome for the average layman - the problem of the language. The „Urtext" is in German, obviously, and in a particularly obscure and bureaucratic lingo at that. Normally, this ought not to make a translation impossible to accomplish, but here we have to fend with the risk that the choice of words, and hence the reader's mind, is influenced by a possibly unconscious partiality of the translator. A case in point is the rendering of the German word „erfassen" on p. 9 of the original (regarding the Jews in France). The official English version on the Wannsee website has „rounding-up", but this shows that the translator has jumped to a conclusion which is unjustfied, although attractive, because in German bureaucratic language „erfassen" quite simply - and innocently - signifies something like identifying and seizing in a list. In connexion with a document which is couched in a very much veiled language, such liberties should not be tolerated.

The „Protokoll" has, by now, become public property, as it were, and has served as a basis for two films. A German one, produced in 1984, is a well-made feature, responding nearly 100 % to the traditional requirements of unity in time, place, and action. It is being shown quite regularly both in Germany and abroad. Unfortunately, in the US and possibly elsewhere, it has been made an instrument what Norman Finkelstein has called the marketing of the Holocaust: even though no verbatim transcript of the conference has ever been found, the film is distributed in those countries with the firm assertion that it is indeed the word-for-word rendering of the meeting. The historian, it would seem, counts for nothing in the global market economy.

Revealing account of Nazi Racial Policy - Rated
A short book but one that gets to the point. Roseman writes a revealing and readable account of not only the Wannsee Conference but also the process from Mein Kampf to genocide.

It appears that the Nazi's did not reaaly have a coherent answer to the so-called "Jewish question", and it is doubtful that the genocide of the Jews was planned from the start. In 1933 it was a "Jew-Free" Germany, by 1941 it was an eradication of the biological Jew.

Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. A must buy for any lad or laddete interested in the Psychology of Genocide.

Cigars, Cognac & Genocide. A Chilling Read. - Rated
This compelling, chilling study reveals how the SS, Nazi Party officials and top Civil Servants of the Third Reich, calmly sat down together to plan the Final Solution - the systematic genocide of the Jewish people from Europe.

Read how these representatives of the Nazi regime, sat drinking cognac & smoking cigars, while calmly and in a businesslike manner, discussing & arranging the ethnic cleansing and genocide of an entire people.

The cold blooded efficiency of the Nazi plan, described here as the Wannsee Protocol, will shock many readers who will see the apparatus of genocide being planned to run like a well machine. A machine that would even proceed to see the commercial utilisation of the victims through their hair, body-fat, teeth etc.. Shocking!

The cruelty and indifference of these officials in debating the forthcoming slaughter is likely to send chills down the spines of many whenever the Jewish people are discussed behind closed doors. This extraordinary book looks in detail at the effective procedures decided upon which aimed to murder every single Jew from Ireland to the Urals & from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. A total of some eleven million Jews. Six million of whom would fall victim to the horrific agenda before the war's end.

The author discusses how the rhetoric and propaganda against the Jews throughout the Third Reich provided a fertile ground to facilitate the operation of the machinery of death which the Nazis chose to implement. The political and social climate having been made ready for when the murder of Jews was regarded as a legitimate means of 'political struggle' to further the Reich. The book also discusses why this meeting was in itself necessary, with the slaughter of the Jews having already started.

Recommended read on the Holocaust.