The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution - Softcover

Mark Roseman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141003952 ISBN 13: 9780141003955

Publisher: Penguin, 2003

Synopsis

At a villa on the shore of the Wannsee, a lake in suburban Berlin, on 20th January 1942 one of the most terrible meetings in human history convened. Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich and organised and minuted by Adolf Eichmann, it brought together representatives of all the principal Nazi agencies in eastern Europe. Pooling the expertise of those present, Heydrich created the plan that would let Europe 'be combed through from west to east' for Jews and which would put the Final Solution on a rational and industrial footing.

About this title

Review:

Genocide is never easy to explain, especially when the perpetrators appear to be an educated elite, enjoying many of the trappings of civilisation. In The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting, Mark Roseman brilliantly explores this paradox, describing the night, 60 years ago, when the Nazi top brass met over cognac and cigars in a Berlin suburb, and drew up the Protocol that implemented the unprecedented and chilling brutality of the "final solution" to the "Jewish question".

Roseman, the prize-winning author of The Past in Hiding, uses the anniversary of Wannsee not only to reconstruct the events of that evening and examine the differing backgrounds and motives of those who took part. He also provides an exhaustive investigation of the longer-term genesis of Nazi policy towards the Jews, from repression and denial of civil rights, to random acts of military pillage and execution, through to deportation and emigration. Evidence for and against the influence of Hitler is carefully sifted, and the timing of the onset of the "final solution" amidst the faltering German offensive against Russia and the entry of the USA into the war is meticulously reconstructed. The book does not offer any easy answers. Wannsee, Roseman concludes, did no more or less than transfer Jewish repatriation policy from the civilian authorities to the SS. But by then the Holocaust was already in full swing, and barbarism was the order of the day. For a clear and cogent account of the most terrible years in 20th-century history, this book is a must.--Miles Taylor

About the Author:

Mark Roseman is Professor of History at the University of Southampton. His last book, also published by Penguin, was THE PAST IN HIDING.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0141003952
• ISBN 13: 9780141003955
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160