History Film / Conspiracy

** From the very moment that he swaggers into the mansion (cheerfully boasting that he plans to acquire it after the war), you know what Heydrich is: A classic [[TheSociopath sociopath]], to whom mass murder means no more than buying a house. Also of note - Heydrich is unique in not responding to the "heil Hitler" greeting in kind, a hint at his lack of actual loyalty. Also, the very first scene of the movie is him flying into Wansee in his plane, capturing his narcissism and flair for the dramatic.
*** It also says something that Eichmann, who has already been established as ruthless in his own right (see below) and has been simply a polite host to the other attendees, displays absolute deference to Heydrich from the moment he walks in.

* IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: When everybody is introducing themselves to the group, SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Rudolf Lange gives his title and says "among other things." Heydrich responds that they all have "other things." His "other things" just so happens to be command of an ''Einsatzkommando'' unit, charged with executing Jews, Gypsies, communists, and other undesirables behind the advancing German army; essentially a mobile Holocaust unit. Not that any of those present would be genuinely surprised (apart maybe from the sheer scale of it).

* TheBadGuyWins: They're all bad guys, mind you. It's just that the lesser bad guys are overruled by the more evil ones by the end. Heydrich gradually squashes any dissenting opinion and forces all the other ministries that opposed the genocide in some way to fall into line with the SS, and the Holocaust goes ahead as planned. Some of the attendees were punished for their crimes during and after the war such as Heydrich being assassinated and Eichmann captured in Argentina and dragged to Israel for trial, but a distressing amount became {{Karma Houdini}}s.

* KarmaHoudini: According to the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, a depressing number of the participants in the meeting appear to have either served ridiculously small prison terms or even avoided any kind of punishment altogether for their consequent actions.

** Heydrich is the most evil Nazi in the film and the biggest instigator of the genocide, and also the first to die after the conference. Within several months he is assassinated by Czech operatives sent by the British, before he even sees the culmination of his Holocaust.

* TheDragon: Technically speaking, Heydrich is this to BigBad Heinrich Himmler (who is, in turn, TheDragon to BiggerBad UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler). For the purposes of the film, however, Heydrich is pretty much BigBad on his own.

* PragmaticVillainy: Many objections are raised to the impending Holocaust, but other than Kritzinger's ones, none of them have anything to do with moral concerns. Stuckart, in particular, is passionate about the the consequences of ignoring established laws, giving virtually unlimited power to the SS, and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking creating a tidal wave of inheritance claims.]] Others point out that the loss of slave labor will exacerbate labor shortages, and that diverting soldiers, vehicles and trains from the Russian front will weaken the war effort. The closest anyone gets to pointing out the horrors of genocide are concerns that ordering soldiers to kill unarmed women and children en masse would cause 'morale problems' - and then the only solution proposed is to simply change the method of killing.

* PunchClockVillain: This trope is taken to its most terrifying extreme, as the Nazis are debating the planning of a genocide of millions as matter-of-factly as they would if it were a business meeting between the heads of a major company. In the end it's simply an administrative job for them, discussed over lunch, as they're all part of a larger machine with only Heydrich having any real authority. Then again it varies from one character to the next. For some, it's just a job, and they enjoy doing their job effectively. Others actually enjoy what they're doing.

* PragmaticVillainy: Many objections are raised to the impending Holocaust, but other than Kritzinger, none of them raise objections have anything to do with moral concerns. Stuckart, in particular, is passionate about the the consequences of ignoring established laws, giving virtually unlimited power to the SS, and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking creating a tidal wave of inheritance claims.]] Others point out that the loss of slave labor will exacerbate labor shortages, and that diverting soldiers, vehicles and trains from the Russian front will weaken the war effort. The closest anyone gets to pointing out the horrors of genocide are concerns that ordering soldiers to kill unarmed women and children en masse would cause 'morale problems' - and then the only solution proposed is to simply change the method of killing.

--> '''Luther''': Neumann, I introduce Dr. Klopfer, a close associate of the Brown Eminence[[labelnote:note]]Martin Bormann's nickname (a pun on "Grey Eminence", as the right-hand man of Cardinal Richelieu came to be known), brown referring to the brown uniform of the Nazi Party.[[/labelnote]].

--> '''Luther''': Neumann, I introduce Dr. Klopfer, a close associate of the Brown Eminence.

* UnableToCry: Offscreen, Dr. Kritzinger tells Reinhard Heydrich a story about an old friend who had an abusive father but a doting mother. The man was unable to cry at his mother's funeral, but was strangely broken down in tears and sobbing uncontrollably at his father's funeral. It was because his father's hatred defined the man's life more than his mother's love ever did, rendering him an empty shell who had lost his purpose when the object of his hatred was gone. This ties into a warning that Kritzinger is trying to give Heydrich about his anti-Semitism.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Heydrich has a personal talk with Major Lange about the duties of soldiering. Heydrich seems to view himself as some sort of impromptu mentor figure to Lange, as he tries to convince Lange that all the death they're causing (including ''annihilating an entire people'') is for a "better future". Given Heydrich's sociopathic qualities it's doubtful that he actually believes it himself and was instead just [[FauxAffablyEvil turning up the charm]], but Lange takes the message at face value.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Luther asks this, only to by told by the man doing the shooting that soldiers break down psychologically when they're asked to kill thousands of unarmed 'enemies', including women and children, many of whom were also German nationals. Heydrich and others add that it's a waste of time, manpower, and bullets. Then he turns the subject to gas.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The movie touches on the rumors that Heydrich himself was partly Jewish in a back-and-forth between Klopfer and Mueller. Ultimately it neither confirms nor denies them.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Eichmann expands on his anti-Semitic obsession by telling a story about how he arranged with a Rabbi to teach him Hebrew, even paying the man out of his own pocket after his superior denied him the funds. The Rabbi was suddenly deported, and Eichmann notes that if the Rabbi had asked him he would have protected the man... until his lessons were complete.

** The film paints Heydrich as holding some feelings and convictions against the Jews. In reality, much like Eichmann, he barely gave them a thought, just mindlessly obeying Hitler and Himmler's orders.

* DeadlyEuphemism: As befitting a film about the Holocaust, these are used frequently -- "evacuation" is the term finally agreed upon when discussing the future policy of the regime. Lange gets so pissed off by this he confronts Heydrich, [[EuphemismBuster asking if mass killings were meant by "evacuation"]]. Heydrich simply responds that they were. Infamously, this is TruthInTelevision: direct references to the deadly nature of the FinalSolution were strictly avoided in the official documents.

* NoDelaysForTheWicked: This is Heydrich's ultimate objective during the conference--to cut through all the bureaucratic objections and red tape to start his genocide as quickly as possible. He does this by invoking his authority to convince all the other officials to play along and blackmailing those who still refuse. Near the end he declares that the train system to the death camps will start moving in days instead of weeks, and later boasts that within a year the Nazis will have exterminated every Jew in Europe.

* EnemyCivilWar: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. Mueller at several points in the film interjects when other characters protest the way that the SS is dominating the situation, explaining that there must be a single guiding hand to form policy. If there are multiple objectives then the entire process can fall into shambles as they compete against one another; he likens it to an animal having two heads and a ship having two captains. He explicitly points out that having Martin Bohrmann and Herman Goering fight it out would be disastrous.

** Eichmann himself was the most notable example of this trope, being completely emotionally detached from his actions; in the film he actually comes off as one of the least ibherently anti-Semitic characters. It's no coincidence that the famous phrase ''the banality of evil'' was coined by Hanna Arendt in regards to him. Heydrich was arguably this as well in RealLife; in the film, however, he seems to actually believe in what he's doing.

** Eichmann himself was the most notable example of this being completely emotionally detached from his actions (it's no coincidence that the famous phrase"the banality of evil" was coined by Hanna Arendt in regards to him). Heydrich was arguably this as well in RealLife; in the film, however, he seems to actually believe in what he's doing.

** ''Generalgouvernement'''s representatives point out epidemics in the already overcrowded Polish ghettoes. While murder is not necessarily the ''best'' solution for them, they really do need to find some way of reducing the number of people if they want to avoid spreading infection to Germans.

** Unmentioned is the ''Generalgouvernement'''s food shortage. While murder is not necessarily the ''best'' solution for them, they really do need to find some way of reducing the number of mouths they have to feed if they want to avoid rebellion.

* PragmaticVillainy: Many objections are raised to the impending Holocaust, but other than Kritzinger, none of them raise objections have anything to do with moral concerns. Stuckart, in particular, is passionate about the the consequences of ignoring established laws, giving virtually unlimited power to the SS, and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking creating a tidal wave of inheritance claims.]] Others point out that the loss of slave labor will exacerbate labor shortages, and that diverting soldiers, vehicles and trains from the Russian front will weaken the war effort. The closest anyone gets to pointing out the horrors of genocide are concerns that ordering soldiers to kill unarmed women and children en masse would cause 'morale problems'.

* IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: When everybody is introducing themselves to the group, SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Rudolf Lange gives his title and says "among other things." Heydrich responds that they all have "other things." His "other things" just so happens to be command of an ''Einsatzkommando'' unit, charged with executing Jews, Gypsies, communists, and other undesirables behind the advancing German army; essentially a mobile Holocaust unit.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / HistoricalVillainDowngrade:

** Lange was an unrepentant Nazi and there is no indication that he felt anything other than joy at shooting dead thousands of Jews. The film version is a ShellShockedVeteran, although this is used in order to highlight the RealLife problems the Nazis had with the gas-vans and death-squads (that they turned men into "psychopaths or neurotics.")

* KarmaHoudini: According to the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, a depressing number of the participants in the meeting appear to have avoided any kind of punishment for their consequent actions.

* ForTheEvulz: Lampshaded by Dr. Friesler, who questions whether the meeting was even necessary. Muller's explanation is that it's just Heydrich's style: he'd rather have the chance to persuade rather than just give orders.

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[TheGhost The unseen]] UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. It's abundantly clear the orders for Heydrich to organize the genocide ultimately come from him, and the Nazis are shown paying lip service to their dictator, but he remains a distant higher figure of the system.
* HangingJudge: Roland Freisler of the People's Court. While we never get to see him in his role as a judge, he is malicious, bloody-minded, and openly contemptuous of the concept of rule of law. In real life, he was at least as vile as he is played here.

* BlackComedy: InUniverse. The debate over sterilization is sidetracked for a while by lurid jokes. Besides that, virtually every joke the Nazis make is in the context of making light of mass slaughter. It is definitely not meant to be funny for the viewer.

** The film paints Heydrich as holding some convictions against the Jews. In reality, much like Eichmann, he barely gave them a thought, just mindlessly obeying Hitler and Himmler's orders.

* TheDragon: Technically speaking, Heydrich is one to Adolf Hitler, although he plays more of the BigBad in this film.

* '''Brendan Coyle''' as '''Heinrich Mueller''': Chief of the Gestapo and as such direct subordinate to Reinhard Heydrich and a boss of Adolf Eichmann. He walked out of the Fuehrerbunker on May 1, 1945 and was never seen again, dead or alive.

* '''Brendan Coyle''' as '''Heinrich Mueller''': Chief of the Gestapo and as such direct subordinate to Reinhard Heydrich. He walked out of the Fuehrerbunker on May 1, 1945 and was never seen again, dead or alive.

* '''Stanley Tucci''' as '''Adolf Eichmann''': Immediate subordinate to Heydrich, and head of the SS Office for Jewish Affairs, Eichmann is the man tasked with arranging the meeting, and the operations which arise from it. Eichmann takes the role of a dispassionate observer, frequently chiming in on Heydrich's side, and generally as a man with no purpose beyond ideology. He later became known as the "architect of the Holocaust". After the war, he fled to Argentina, where he was kidnapped by Mossad and taken to Israel, where he became the only man ever put to death by that country.

* ClassifiedInformation: Eichmann takes thorough measures to ensure there's minimal evidence of the meeting, even removing the guest book and ensuring a list of damages for broken crockery is sent to him personally. Fortunately for history one copy of the minutes was not destroyed by the person it was sent to.

* ChromosomeCasting: [[Justified JustifiedTrope]], as all RealLife conference participants were men (Nazi government considered politics a purely masculine field). The only female character in the film is a maid who briefly appears.

* ChromosomeCasting: The only female character in the film is a maid who briefly appears. The rest are all men, as the Nazi government considered politics a purely masculine field.

* DeadlyEuphemism: As befitting a film about the Holocaust, these are used frequently -- "evacuation" is the term finally agreed upon when discussing the future policy of the regime. Lange gets so pissed off by this he confronts Heydrich, [[EuphemismBuster asking if mass killings were meant by "evacuation"]]. Heydrich simply responds that they were. Infamously, this is TruthInTelevision.