The main event we explored today was the Wannsee Conference, which took place at Reinhard Heydrich’s mansion. While the day before we got briefed on what it was and why it was important, actually going there made me learn so much that only hearing about it never could have. Packed full of primary sources, I felt like I uncovered a new depth to the Holocaust. While there was far more information there than I could possibly recount, what stuck with me the most was the undertone of the meeting. As a conference among Hitler’s top echelon, (though Hitler himself did not attend) this meeting was when the Nazis talked about the logistics of mass extermination. What was extremely surprising was the eagerness with which the Nazis wanted to carry this extermination out. The entire meeting was organized by Heydrich to put him at a social advantage. Through the decadent meal he served, his opulent manor, and most definitely obsequious waitstaff, he made the entire lunch focused on the idea of gaining total control over the manner in which the group “dealt with the Jewish problem”. Seeing his machinations gave me a different level of understanding, something deeper than the textbook and anecdotal understanding of the Holocaust than I had before.
