Wednesday July 2nd, Berlin

Today was the day we would be touring various sites in Germany.  The first stop for us was the Wannsee Conference Villa.  It was here that the ‘Final Solution’ to the Jewish question in Europe was proposed.  I was not sure what to expect when we were en route to the villa, but what awaited us was nothing that I had in mind.  The building and grounds were so beautiful, a very serene and peaceful setting overlooking water.  It was surreal to me that something so atrocious was presented in a place so amazing.  Our tour guide, Yishai, explained how people received fancy invitations to attend a ‘breakfast’ to discuss this solution.  The utter irony that something so civilised as a formal breakfast complete with invitations was the circumstance where the Final Solution was presented is absolutely mind-boggling. One thing that really struck me that I shall not soon forget was the creaking of the floors.  Everything appears to be fairly genuine in terms of it being in its actual state at the villa.  Walking into particular rooms I would hear and feel the floors creaking and it was very eerie to me as I imagined those who had walked that floor before me. 

I’ve found a couple of good sites with information about the Wannsee Conference: one is from the Holocaust Encyclopedia and the other is from the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Education Site (this one has copies of the actual documents: invitations, replies, the protocol, etc, as well as photos of the participants).  If you click this link, you will see some of the pictures I took while visiting the Wannsee Conference Villa.