How the Holocaust was organized | The Wannsee Conference

On January 20, 1942, at the Wannsee Villa near Berlin, senior Nazi officials, including Adolf Eichmann, convened to coordinate the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." In a meeting lasting less than 90 minutes, they formalized plans for the systematic extermination of Europe’s Jewish population—around 11 million people—as well as Roma, disabled individuals, and others deemed "undesirable." Despite the horrific subject, Eichmann later described the atmosphere as disturbingly casual. The Wannsee Conference marked a turning point, shifting Nazi policy from sporadic violence to an organized, bureaucratic system of genocide. Mass shootings and the construction of death camps were planned as part of this machinery. Eichmann, tasked with overseeing the logistics of deportations, played a central role. His later efforts to minimize the conference’s significance highlight its chilling legacy as a moment when genocide became official policy, meticulously planned and ruthlessly executed by the Nazi regime.