No formal plan for dealing with the Jews existed prior to the Wannsee Conference, and many Nazis favored the deportation or forced emigration of those they considered racial enemies. But with Germany’s conquest of Poland and western Russia, the Nazis found themselves with 11 million Jews to deal with. Deportation, they decided, was no longer practical.

There had already been mass killings of Jews, with mobile killing units — the Einsatzgruppen — shooting most of the victims. Shooting was deemed inefficient, however, because the number of people killed was relatively small while the men who did the shooting often suffered from depression or shattered nerves.

After the Wannsee Conference the method of killing was refined and expanded with assembly-line precision as the Nazis began employing both engine exhaust and Zyklon B, a commercial pesticide, to gas the Jews in their thousands. It was mass murder on an unprecedented scale, carried out in camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

These camps, run by the SS under Heinrich Himmler, employed the most efficient technology available for accomplishing their task. Camps were situated near key railheads to facilitate the transportation of large numbers of people.

At the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in southern Poland, gas chambers capable of processing up to 5,000 people per hour were built. After gassing, which could take as long as 15 minutes to complete, gold fillings were extracted from victims’ teeth, their body cavities searched for hidden valuables and the corpses incinerated in ovens.

Between 5 and 6 million Jews are estimated to have died in what is now known as the Holocaust. Another 1 million people — including German opponents of the Nazi regime — were killed as well.

Source: Various

Photo: The villa where the Wannsee Conference was held is now a memorial and museum.
Courtesy Adam Carr

This article first appeared on Wired.com Jan. 20, 2007.

See Also:

• Hackers Post Private E-Mails of Accused Holocaust Denier
• Video: Holocaust Survivor Shares Her Story In Second Life
• Nintendo Not Blocking Release of Holocaust Game
• Jan. 20: Inaugural Tech, From Steamboat to Twitter
• Jan. 8, 1942: Birthday of a First-Rate Mind, and a Medical Marvel
• Jan. 13, 1942: Ejection Seat Works, Pilot Elated
• Feb. 23, 1942: Invasion! They’re Coming!
• June 4, 1942: Naval Warfare Evolves as the Tide Turns
• July 18, 1942: World’s First Operational Jet Fighter Takes Wing
• Aug. 11, 1942: Actress + Piano Player = New Torpedo
• Oct. 29, 1942: Alaska Highway Opens as a Hedge Against Invasion
• Dec. 1, 1942: Mandatory Gas Rationing, Lots of Whining
• Dec. 2, 1942: Nuclear Pile Gets Going

Authors: Tony Long

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