Editing Wannsee Conference (section)

== Proceedings ==
In preparation for the conference, Eichmann drafted a list of the total numbers of Jews in the various European countries. Countries were listed in two groups, "A" and "B". "A" countries were those under direct German control or occupation (or partially occupied and quiescent, in the case of [[Vichy France]]); "B" countries were allied or client states, neutral, or at war with Germany.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|pp=111–112}}{{efn|name=Briefing paper}} The numbers reflect the estimated Jewish population within each country; for example, Estonia is listed as ''[[Judenfrei]]'' (free of Jews), since the 4,500 Jews who remained in Estonia after the German occupation had been killed by the end of 1941.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=237, 239}} [[Occupation of Poland (1939–45)|Occupied Poland]] was not on the list because by 1939 [[Second Polish Republic|the country]] was split three ways among [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany]] in the west, the [[territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union]] in the east, and the General Government where many [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Polish and Jewish expellees]] had already been resettled.{{sfn|Browning|2007|p=93}}

Heydrich opened the conference with an account of the anti-Jewish measures taken in Germany since the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. He said that between 1933 and October 1941, 537,000 German, Austrian, and Czech Jews had emigrated.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=110}} This information was taken from a briefing paper prepared for him the previous week by Eichmann.{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|p=112}}

Heydrich reported that there were approximately eleven million Jews in the whole of Europe, of whom half were in countries not under German control.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|pp=111–112}}{{efn|name=Briefing paper}} He explained that since further Jewish emigration had been prohibited by Himmler, a new solution would take its place: "evacuating" Jews to the east. This would be a temporary solution, a step towards the "final solution of the Jewish question".{{sfn|Roseman|2002|pp=110–111}}

{{quote | Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes. The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=113}} }}

German historian [[Peter Longerich]] notes that vague orders couched in terminology that had a specific meaning for members of the regime were common, especially when people were being ordered to carry out criminal activities. Leaders were given briefings about the need to be "severe" and "firm"; all Jews were to be viewed as potential enemies that had to be dealt with ruthlessly.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=189–190}} The wording of the Wannsee Protocol—the distributed minutes of the meeting—made it clear to participants that evacuation east was a euphemism for death.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=77}}

[[File:Wannsee-room.jpg|thumb|The conference room at the Wannsee Conference House (2003)]]
Heydrich went on to say that in the course of the "practical execution of the final solution", Europe would be "combed through from west to east", but that Germany, Austria, and the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] would have priority, "due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities".{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=113}} This was a reference to increasing pressure from the [[Gauleiter]]s (regional Nazi Party leaders) in Germany for the Jews to be removed from their areas to allow accommodation for Germans made homeless by Allied bombing, as well as to make space for laborers being imported from occupied countries. The "evacuated" Jews, he said, would first be sent to "transit ghettos" in the General Government, from which they would be transported eastward.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=113}} Heydrich said that to avoid legal and political difficulties, it was important to define who was a Jew for the purposes of "evacuation". He outlined categories of people who would not be killed. Jews over 65 years old, and Jewish [[World War I]] veterans who had been severely wounded or who had won the [[Iron Cross]], might be sent to [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]] instead of being killed. "With this expedient solution", he said, "in one fell swoop, many interventions will be prevented."{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=113}}

The situation of people who were half or quarter Jews, and of Jews who were married to non-Jews, was more complex. Under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, their status had been left deliberately ambiguous. Heydrich announced that ''[[Mischling]]e'' (mixed-race persons) of the first degree (persons with two Jewish grandparents) would be treated as Jews. This would not apply if they were married to a non-Jew and had children by that marriage. It would also not apply if they had been granted written exemption by "the highest offices of the Party and State".{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=115}} Such persons would be sterilised or deported if they refused sterilisation.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=115}} A "''Mischling'' of the second degree" (a person with one Jewish grandparent) would be treated as German, unless he or she was married to a Jew or a ''Mischling'' of the first degree, had a "racially especially undesirable appearance that marks him outwardly as a Jew",{{sfn|Roseman|2002|pp=115–116}} or had a "political record that shows that he feels and behaves like a Jew".{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=116}} Persons in these latter categories would be killed even if married to non-Jews.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|pp=115–116}} In the case of [[anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany|mixed marriages]], Heydrich recommended that each case should be evaluated individually, and the impact on any German relatives assessed. If such a marriage had produced children who were being raised as Germans, the Jewish partner would not be killed. If they were being raised as Jews, they might be killed or sent to an old-age ghetto.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=116}} These exemptions applied only to German and Austrian Jews, and were not always observed even for them. In most of the occupied countries, Jews were rounded up and killed ''en masse'', and anyone who lived in or identified with the Jewish community in any given place was regarded as a Jew.{{sfn|Browning|2007|p=414}}{{efn|name=Mischlings}}

[[File:Wannsee Conference - List of Jews in European countries.JPG|thumb|Facsimiles of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference and Eichmann's list, presented under glass at the Wannsee Conference House Memorial]]

Heydrich commented: "In occupied and unoccupied France, the registration of Jews for evacuation will in all probability proceed without great difficulty",{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=114}} but in the end, the great majority of French-born Jews survived.{{sfn|Marrus|Paxton|1981|pp=343–344}} More difficulty was anticipated with Germany's allies [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] and [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]]. "In Romania the government has [now] appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs", Heydrich said.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=114}} In fact the deportation of Romanian Jews was slow and inefficient despite a high degree of popular antisemitism.{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|pp=151–155}} "In order to settle the question in Hungary", Heydrich said, "it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government".{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=114}} The Hungarian regime of [[Miklós Horthy]] continued to resist German interference in its Jewish policy until the spring of 1944, when the ''Wehrmacht'' [[German invasion of Hungary (1944)|invaded Hungary]]. Very soon, Eichmann{{snd}}with the collaboration of Hungarian authorities{{snd}}would send 600,000 Jews of Hungary (and parts of Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia occupied by Hungary) to be murdered in the [[extermination camp]]s, primarily [[Auschwitz]].{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|pp=159–195}}

Heydrich spoke for nearly an hour. Then followed about thirty minutes of questions and comments, followed by some less formal conversation.{{sfn|Browning|2007|p=413}} [[Otto Hofmann]] (head of the [[SS Race and Settlement Main Office]]; RuSHA) and [[Wilhelm Stuckart]] (State Secretary of the [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)|Interior Ministry]]) pointed out the legalistic and administrative difficulties over mixed marriages, and suggested compulsory dissolution of mixed marriages or the wider use of sterilisation as a simpler alternative.{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|p=113}} [[Erich Neumann (politician)|Erich Neumann]] from the Four Year Plan argued for the exemption of Jews who were working in industries vital to the war effort and for whom no replacements were available. Heydrich assured him that this was already the policy; such Jews would not be killed.{{sfn|Roseman|2002|p=71}}{{efn|name=exemptions}} [[Josef Bühler]], State Secretary of the General Government, stated his support for the plan and his hope that the killings would commence as soon as possible.{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|p=114}}

Towards the end of the meeting [[cognac]] was served, and after that the conversation became less restrained.{{sfn|Cesarani|2005|p=113}} Eichmann said: {{quote|"The gentlemen were standing together, or sitting together and were discussing the subject quite bluntly, quite differently from the language which I had to use later in the record. During the conversation they minced no words about it at all&nbsp;... they spoke about methods of killing, about liquidation, about extermination."{{sfn|Browning|2007|p=413}}}}

Eichmann recorded that Heydrich was pleased with the course of the meeting. He had expected much resistance, Eichmann recalled, but instead, he had found "an atmosphere not only of agreement on the part of the participants, but more than that, one could feel an agreement which had assumed a form which had not been expected".{{sfn|Browning|2007|p=414}}

===Eichmann's list===
{{col begin}}
{{col-3}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ A (Areas under direct German control or occupation)
! scope="col" | Location 
! scope="col" | Number
|-
| [[Areas annexed by Germany|Altreich]]
|131,800
|-
|[[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]
|43,700
|-
|[[Ostgebiete]]
|420,000
|-
|[[General Government]]
|2,284,000
|-
|[[Bialystok District|Białystok]]
|400,000
|-
|[[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]
|74,200
|-
|[[German occupation of Estonia during World War II|Estonia]]
|[[Judenfrei|free of Jews]]
|-
|[[German occupation of Latvia during World War II|Latvia]]
|3,500
|-
|[[German occupation of Lithuania during World War II|Lithuania]]
|34,000
|-
|[[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|Belgium]]
|43,000
|-
|[[Denmark in World War II|Denmark]]
|5,600
|-
|[[Zone occupée|Occupied France]]
|165,000
|-
|[[Zone libre|Unoccupied France]]
|700,000
|-
|[[Hellenic State (1941–1944)|Greece]]
|69,600
|-
|[[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|Netherlands]]
|160,800
|-
|[[German occupation of Norway|Norway]]
|1,300
|}
{{col-3}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ B (Allied or client states, neutral, or at war with Germany)
! scope="col" | Location 
! scope="col" | Number
|-
|[[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]
|48,000
|-
|[[United Kingdom|England]]
|330,000
|-
|[[Finland]]
|2,300
|-
|[[Irish Free State]]
|4,000
|-
|[[Kingdom of Italy]] (including [[Sardinia]])
|58,000
|-
| [[Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)|Albania]]
|200
|-
|[[Independent State of Croatia|Croatia]]
|40,000
|-
|[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]]
|3,000
|-
|[[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] (including [[Bessarabia]])
|342,000
|-
|[[Sweden]]
|8,000
|-
|[[Switzerland]]
|18,000
|-
|[[Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia|Serbia]]
|10,000
|-
|[[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovakia]]
|88,000
|-
|[[Francoist Spain|Spain]]
|6,000
|-
|[[East Thrace|Turkey (European part)]]
|55,500
|-
|[[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]]
|742,800
|-
|[[Soviet Union]]
|5,000,000 (total)
|-
| - [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]]
|2,994,684
|-
| - [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussia]] (excluding Białystok)
|446,484
|-
|'''Total'''
|'''11,000,000'''
|}
{{col-3}}
[[File:WannseeList.jpg|thumb|[[Adolf Eichmann|Eichmann]]'s list]]
{{col end}}