Die Wannseekonferenz, or The Wannsee Conference in English, is a 1984 German film which recreates the titular conference, an important milestone in the The Holocaust. Anglophone viewers are more likely to be familiar with Conspiracy, the British remake of this film.
If Conspiracy is an examination of the psychology of genocide, Die Wannseekonferenz is a glance at the banality of evil. It doesn’t include passionate arguments like the English film does. It simply re-enacts a ninety-minute meeting held by mid- to high-level officials in January 1942. The reason? To execute the will of their superiors. Given a stalled war in the east and the impending arrival of America from the west, it’s been decided that what the situation truly needs is for them to kill every Jew in Europe.
It has been released for free on Youtube by Lionheart Filmworks, and can be found here
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The film was again remade with a German cast in 2022, also called Die Wannsee Konferenz.
This film contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: These people are chill, borderline chummy with each other. The only friction is when Heydrich asserts SS control over Buhler, and when Stuckart argues against evacuating the half-German Jews.
- Amoral Attorney: Half of the cast are lawyers…
- Armies Are Evil: … and the other half are military.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- It’s noted in the film, as in the Real Life Wansee Protocol, that the Jews who survive the labor camps will need to be treated accordingly, as those would, by Nazi Survival of the Fittest standards, be the stronger, hardy individuals who could revive the race.
- After several duds, Stuckart argues that to evacuate a half-Jew is also to evacuate a half-German. Those half-Jews, combining Aryan genetic superiority with Jewish intelligence and education, would be pushed right into the enemies’ hands – as born leaders! Nearly everyone laughs hysterically at this, it being as absurd to them as to us, though for a different reason.
- It’s noted in the film, as in the Real Life Wansee Protocol
- At Least I Admit It: Before the conference formally begins, Lange complains to Heydrich about how District Commissioners scorn the SS while themselves keeping Jewish slaves. Heydrich councils his colleague not to let it get to him.They say that it's unworthy of the Germany of Kant and Gothe that my men lust after executions. And that from a man who roams the Minsk ghetto looking for Jewish beauties for their private pleasure.
- The Bad Guy Wins: An overstatement; there’s barely a conflict to “win”. They're almost in total agreement; the only two people to offer any objection do so halfheartedly and are brushed aside just as quickly.
- The Big Board: There's a prominent map of Europe behind Heydrich which he uses several times to explain the NS plans, for territories already conquered or soon to be, and to point out the level of Jewish "infestation" on the continent.
- Burning the Ships: Heydrich’s unofficial objective. As he tells Eichmann afterwards, "There’s no more flirting with the West. No turning back now. With the Fuhrer to the final victory or to death.”note
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A downplayed example. After the meeting in which the total genocide of all Jews in the Reich is discussed and planned, Heydrich marks off the entry in his diary with a comically large check mark.
- Deadly Euphemism: Infamously, “evacuate.” In Real Life, the Nazi obsession with euphemisms made its way into the Wansee Protocol, which uses “evacuate” constantly, includes a few lines noting that many will perish via labor though the rest will be have to treated accordingly, and then goes right back to using “evacuate” as if there’s any point to it.
- Docudrama: It follows the minutes of the original meeting, notably in the original room.
- Driven to Suicide: Kritzinger comments that 208 Jews have committed suicide. It’s causing his office dreadful embarrassment, you see.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Kritzinger has a little moment of horror, after the meeting, when Stuckart explains a reference Heydrich made to My Struggle. The relevant page is about poison gas. "Gas?"
- In comparison to Klopfer and Luther’s constant vulgarity in Conspiracy, there is one truly lurid comment when an attendee declares that Streicher had it right: a German vagina, defiled by a Jew, is never getting clean. The secretary looks deeply uncomfortable and Heydrich tells him to keep it on a cleaner level.
- Eichmann threw up when he first saw the results of the gas vans. It left some victims half-alive, with women, children, and elderly among them. Heydrich tells him that he did just fine, and confides that the Reichsfuhrer-SS himself (Himmler) fainted when confronted with the corpses. It proves that we Germans are still human, says Heydrich, as we force ourselves on to secure a better future.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Heydrich recounts (and agrees with) Hitler’s disappointment with England for not agreeing to Germany’s reasonable demands: living space, recognition, Jewish emigration. They should have been able to come to terms, being of the same race and all. His conclusion: the Jews have taken over Downing Street.
- Foregone Conclusion: It was decided before the conference: evacuated to Poland they go. This meeting is simply being various agencies being brought up to speed, and to make sure they know that Heydrich and the RSHA will be in charge of it.
- Germanic Efficiency: Heydrich, on various departments wanting in, comments that he doesn’t know why, it just means more responsibility, but that is a basic German flaw. “Virtue!” says Meyer.
- The Ghost: At the end of the meeting, Heydrich receives a phone call from Himmler asking his deputy for a report, but he only appears in a photograph.
- Final Solution: The most famous one of all, no less.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Stuckart. The Protocol mentions him twice: once in the list of attendees, and that he supported sterilization to avoid administrative hassle.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Downplayed, Stuckart grows increasingly uncomfortable as the conference nears its end, having his cognac refilled as the topic turns to altering the distinctions set down in the Nuremberg Laws, which he helped create.
- Jurisdiction Friction:
- Buhler and Heydrich have a confrontation when the former complains about being left out of things happening in his area. The latter responds to his objections with thinning politeness before calmly asserting that authority was given, cooperation is expected, and moving on to the next subject.
- In general, there's a very clear contrast between the SS and the civilian bureaucrats, both of whom are seated at opposite ends of the conference table. The only exception is Stuckart, who wears an SS uniform, but is an honorary member.
- The supposed pretext of the meeting was to discuss this and how to resolve it, but in actuality it had already been decided that Heydrich and the RSHA would be in charge, and that the other agencies were expected to follow their orders.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Stuckart, the strongest voice for sparing anyone, is this. His office has produced five pounds of legislation, preventing Jews from entering a forest or keeping a canary. The German Mischlinge he’s defending only make up seventy-two thousands of the eleven million prospective victims.
- Only Sane Man: Stuckart, kinda. He's still in favor of the wholesale persecution of the Jews, but he balks at such a loose interpretation of the Nuremberg Laws that Heydrich and everyone else in the room is pushing.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The participants. They comprehend what they are doing, but Jewish suffering has no emotional weight. You could replace the word “Jews” with “disease-carrying animals” and have a public health committee discuss removing them from a neighborhood, and it would look a lot like this film. Neumann, seeing the numbers on how many Jews there are by area, says “What contamination!”
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- Kritzinger worriedly approaches Heydrich after the meeting and comments that eleven million Jews will need eleven, twenty-two, even thirty-three million bullets during wartime. Heydrich says not to worry, and makes a veiled reference to the fact they’ve solved it via Zyklon-B.
- Neumann brings up the conflict between evacuating Jews and enlisting them in war production. Heydrich reminds him that armaments workers are excepted.
- Stuckart argues that the easiest way to make German half-Jews vanish is to do nothing. They can legally only marry Aryans, and will thus peter out. The point is irrelevant, as a total purge was ordered.
- Real Time: This movie goes about as fast as the actual meeting.
- Resign in Protest: Stuckart tells Kritizinger that he’ll submit his resignation through him to the Leader. He can better serve his country with a rifle. In Real Life, he was refused. It’s also a Downplayed trope, as it’s only mildly a moral thing, if at all. He feels out of step with the government and “some things are best left to the younger generation.”
- Running Gag- Lange’s dog will not shut up. “There aren’t any dog lovers left in Germany”, he sniffs, before going off to quiet it, again. It's given a Cerebus Call-Back when he's asked about it, and he explains he likes his dog so much because of how good it is at sniffing out Jews in hiding.
- Sexy Secretary: Heydrich thinks so, and spends a bit of time trying to poach her. He succeeds.
- Sleepyhead: Lange nods off at one point.
- Skewed Priorities: Solving the Jewish Problem is asserted an equal priority to the current death-struggle against the three most powerful countries on Earth combined. No one present seems to find this odd. The closest anyone comes to referring to it is when Stuckart points out (not to be defeatist or anything) that the three enemies and all the various resistance movements could present an attraction to the German half-Jews, should they evacuate them.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: No solution is simpler than Stuckart’s idea of doing nothing; Half-Jews can only marry Aryans, so the category will vanish in two generations through blood dilution. However, their Fuhrer has passed down a mandate to get rid of all Jews once and for all, and (although this is not brought up), the ghettos the Jews are housed in are an impractical long term solution, being vulnerable to plague and a resource sink in rations and guards.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Lange borders this and Punch-Clock Villain. Unlike the usual sadist chomping at the bit to hurt people, Lange is a down-to-earth fellow who likes goofing off with his dog and gets stung by local governors looking down on him. He’s also indifferent to/approving of the mass murder, and doesn’t seem different from the others, despite constantly doing what the rest simply talk about.
- Take Over the World: Heydrich makes comments about settling with world Jewry and possibly enacting the final solution in both hemispheres, implying that ethnically cleansing Greater Germany isn’t enough. Notably, the Real Life Protocol lists population numbers for several countries that Germany wasn’t warring against… yet.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: This seems to be a premise for the evacuations.
- Villain Has a Point:
- Heydrich points out that, after subtracting the exemptions, Stuckart’s seventy-two thousand is reduced by two-thirds. Not exactly a logistical burden.
- Lange makes a disgusted noise when Stuckart says that it’s easy to talk tough from the rear. He’s a front-line soldier, unlike Stuckart, and he’s down with the Endlösung.
- Widow Mistreatment: Eichmann and Luther explain the Cozzi Affair to Heydrich after Kritzinger brings it up. It's caused a bit of an embarassment to the Foreign Office to mistreat the widow of an Italian officer, but Eichmann insists that the Führer's directives for the Endlösing made it necessary.
