Wannsee Conference

The Einsatzgruppen were responsible for murdering well over a million people after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. This method of killing was considered too slow by the Nazi leadership. They were also concerned about the effects it had on the soldiers and SS taking part in the shooting. This was when gassing methods were developed.

A conference about the ‘Final Solution’ took place at Wannsee (a suburb of Berlin) in January 1942. Its purpose was to inform government officials of their role in the destruction of the Jews. Their aim was to kill all 11 million Jews throughout Europe, including the 330,000 living in England.

One of the concerning aspects of this whole tragedy is how ordinary people in society became involved, either directly, or as facilitators of this systematic mass murder of their fellow human beings.