One of the places that I have always wanted to see was the Wannsee House, where, on 20 January 1942, senior Nazi officials gathered to discuss the Final Solution-- the extermination of the Jews. Having studied in grad school, reading numerous books and articles on the Holocaust and World War II, I wanted to see this place in person.
The house is located in a suburb of Berlin, Wannsee, located on a beautiful lake. It is truly an idyllic location-- and such a strange place to gather to discuss disposing of an entire population as if these people were peanuts.
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| the cobblestone entry to the house |
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| Wannsee Lake and the gardens of the house |
The house itself isn't that big and it isn't furnished. It does have room after room of documents and recordings and images of the rise of the Nazis, their passing of the Nuremberg Laws, and the systematic destruction of European Jews. It is not a happy place, but an important place to go to make sure that this never happens again.
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| the foyer, which highlights 4 individual stories of people and what happened to them |
In the dining room, the 20 Nazi officials gathered to discuss the Jewish problem, in mathematical, mechanical terms. No one knows how the room was set up, and so instead in the center of the room is a large table that displays the official report of the Wannsee Conference, with a side-by-side English translation. The report is astonishing to read-- it is technical and straightforward. How to deal with a "problem" within the Third Reich. Only the "problem" are people.
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| the dining room |
It is such an unsettling feeling: that within that house, in such a beautiful setting, such evil was planned and discussed and implemented. The curators did a great job with such a difficult subject. Everyone needs to see it in order to make sure that it never happens again.
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