''Wannsee House and the Holocaust'' by Steven Lehrer tells the story of the elegant suburban Berlin villa where the Wannsee Conference took place on January 20, 1942. At that meeting,

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

announced the plans for the deportation and extermination of all Jews in German-occupied territory. This to be coordinated with the representatives from the Nazi state agencies present at the meeting. A prosperous drug manufacturer,

Ernst Marlier Ernst Ferdinand Emil Marlier (28 July 1875 – 1948) was a German pharmaceutical manufacturer who built the Wannsee Villa, where the Wannsee Conference was held. Early years Ernst Marlier was the son of Philipp Marlier (died c. 1902), a postal of ...

, built the Wannsee Villa in 1914, but was forced to sell in 1921 because of business and legal problems. The buyer was

Friedrich Minoux Friedrich Minoux (21 March 1877 – 16 October 1945) was a German industrialist and financier who is best known for being one of the owners of the Wannsee House, where the namesake conference that would decide the fate of millions at the ha ...

, a wealthy German industrialist and partner of

Hugo Stinnes Hugo Dieter Stinnes (12 February 1870 – 10 April 1924) was a German industrialist and politician. During the late era of the German Empire and early Weimar Republic, he was considered to be one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Europe. ...

. Minoux was later convicted of swindling the Berlin Gasworks, the largest fraud of the Nazi era. From his jail cell in Berlin, Minoux sold the Wannsee Villa to the

Stiftung Nordhav The Stiftung Nordhav (''Nordhav-Stiftung'' or Nordhav Foundation) was a front organization of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) founded in 1939 by Reinhard Heydrich to obtain and manage real estate for the SS. Founding and purpose The name ''Nordh ...

, a foundation controlled by

, whose Berlin home was nearby. After World War II, a Holocaust survivor and historian,

Joseph Wulf Joseph Wulf (22 December 1912 – 10 October 1974) was a German-Polish Jewish historian. A survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, he was the author of several books about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, including ''Das Dritte Reich ...

, campaigned in vain to have the Wannsee Villa made into a Holocaust memorial. Bitterly frustrated, Wulf committed suicide in 1974. In 1992, the Berlin Senate finally made the Wannsee Villa into a memorial. "The German decision to make the Wannsee House a shrine to victims is another part of the society's effort to remember its past. This book ensures that Wannsee will not be forgotten."Steve Lipman. Wannsee House and the Holocaust. Hadassah Magazine Review. January 2002

References

External links

''Wannsee House and the Holocaust'' on Google Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wannsee House And The Holocaust 1942 in Europe 1942 in Germany 1942 conferences Planning the Holocaust 1940s in Berlin Holocaust historiography Holocaust commemoration Steglitz-Zehlendorf