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The Men of the Wannsee Conference
Edited by Hans-Christian Jasch and
Christoph Kreutzmüller
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2017 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
Originally published in German as Die Teilnehmer:
Die Männer der Wannsee-Konferenz,
© 2017 Metropol Verlag
English-language edition © 2017 Erinnern für die Zukunft—
Trägerverein des Hauses der Wannsee-Konferenz e.V
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jasch, Hans-Christian, 1973- editor. | Kreutzmüller, Christoph,
editor.
Title: The participants : the men of the Wannsee Conference / edited by
Hans-Christian Jasch and Christoph Kreutzmüller.
Other titles: Teilnehmer. English
Description: [New York] : Berghahn Books, [2017] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017017956 (print) | LCCN 2017018627 (ebook) | ISBN
9781785336713 (e-book) | ISBN 9781785336331 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Wannsee-Konferenz (1942 : Berlin, Germany) | Holocaust,
Jewish (1939-1945)--Causes. | War criminals--Germany--Biography. |
Nazis--Biography. | Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945.
Classification: LCC D804.3 (ebook) | LCC D804.3 .T4313 2017 (print) | DDC
940.53/11--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017017956
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-633-1 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-78533-671-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-78533-634-8 (ebook)
Contents
List of Figures vii
Foreword xi
Otto Dov Kulka
Introduction The Participants: The Men of the Wannsee
Conference 1
Hans-Christian Jasch and Christoph Kreutzmüller
Chapter 1 Biographical Approaches and the Wannsee
Conference 21
Mark Roseman
Chapter 2 Otto Adolf Eichmann, Reich Main Security Office:
The RSHA’s “Jewish Expert” 40
Bettina Stangneth
Chapter 3 Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Main Security Office:
The Nazi Terror Enforcer 57
Robert Gerwarth
Chapter 4 Otto Hofmann, SS Race and Settlement Main
Office: A Pragmatic Enforcer of Racial Policy? 75
Isabel Heinemann
Chapter 5 Rudolf Lange, Reich Main Security Office:
Academic, Ideological Warrior and Mass
Murderer 95
Peter Klein
Chapter 6 Heinrich Müller, Reich Main Security Office:
The Archetypical Desktop Perpetrator 111
Johannes Tuchel
Chapter 7 Eberhard Schöngarth, Reich Main Security
Office: A Practitioner of Mass Murder 133
Olaf Löschke
vi • Contents
Chapter 8 Josef Bühler, State Secretary for the General
Government: A Behind-the-Scenes Perpetrator 152
Ingo Loose
Chapter 9 Roland Freisler, Reich Ministry of Justice:
Hitler’s “Political Soldier” 171
Silke Struck
Chapter 10 Gerhard Klopfer, Nazi Party Chancellery:
A Nationalist Ideologue and a Respectable West
German 189
Markus Heckmann
Chapter 11 Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger, Reich-Chancellery:
A Prussian Civil Servant under the Nazi Regime 207
Stefan Paul-Jacobs and Lore Kleiber
Chapter 12 Georg Leibbrandt, Reich Ministry for the
Occupied Eastern Territories: An Academic
Radical 224
Martin Munke
Chapter 13 Undersecretary Martin Luther: Defender of
Foreign Office Prerogatives 245
Christopher R. Browning
Chapter 14 Alfred Meyer, Reich Ministry for the Occupied
Eastern Territories: From German Monarchist to
Nazi Desk Perpetrator 266
Heinz-Jürgen Priamus
Chapter 15 Erich Neumann, Plenipotentiary for the Four
Year Plan: A Colorless, Compliant Prussian 283
Christoph Kreutzmüller
Chapter 16 Wilhelm Stuckart (1902–1953), Reich Interior
Ministry: “A Legal Pedant” 301
Hans-Christian Jasch
Index 321
Illustrations
Map 0.1 Residences of the Participants 5
Illustration 0.1 Some of the men who attended the Wannsee
Conference had previously met at various
functions and festivities. At the pictured
gathering, organized by the Reich Ministry
of the Interior in 1937, Heydrich and Stuckart
are seated opposite one another. Seated next
to Heydrich is Kurt Daluege, and two seats
along from Stuckart—with a full beer glass—is
Heinrich Himmler 6
Illustration 0.2 Some of the later participants in the Wannsee
Conference also met through the Academy of
German Law. Pictured here, at a meeting in
fall 1936 of specialists in administrative and
police law, are (from left to right) Chief of
the Ordnungspolizei Kurt Daluege (wearing
spurs), Wilhelm Stuckart, Reich Minister
Hans Frank, Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the
German Police Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard
Heydrich, his deputy Dr Werner Best, Berlin
Chief of Police Graf Wolf-Heinrich von
Helldorff, and an unknown person 7
Illustration 2.1 Portrait of Adolf Eichmann 40
Illustration 3.1 Portrait of Reinhard Heydrich 57
Illustration 3.2 Heydrich at his workplace as head of the
Bavarian police 60
Illustration 3.3 Heydrich congratulating Hermann Göring on
his 49th birthday on 12 January 1942. Eight
days before the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich
viii • Illustrations
assured Reichsmarschall Göring of his loyalty
by personally attending the celebration 64
Illustration 4.1 Portrait of Otto Hofmann 75
Illustration 4.2 Hofmann at a lecture in the Netherlands in July
1942 81
Illustration 4.3 Hofmann following his arrest in Nuremberg 83
Illustration 5.1 Portrait of Rudolf Lange 95
Illustration 5.2 This snapshot of Lange was also found in the
files of the SS race and settlement main office.
It shows him on a cold, sunny day standing at
the edge of a forest, in front of a car with the
driver’s door open 101
Illustration 6.1 Portrait of Heinrich Müller 111
Illustration 6.2 In November 1939 Heinrich Himmler met
with close associates to discuss the progress of
investigations against Georg Elser, who had
attempted to assassinate Hitler in a Munich
beer hall on 8 November 1939. This photo of
the meeting was published in the Nazi Party
newspaper Illustrierter Beobachter. Pictured
(from left) are: SS-Obersturmbannführer
Franz Josef Huber, Chief of the German
Criminal Police SS-Oberführer Arthur Nebe,
Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German
Police Heinrich Himmler, SS-Gruppenführer
and Chief of the Security Police Reinhard
Heydrich, and Gestapo Chief SS-Oberführer
Heinrich Müller 114
Illustration 7.1 Portrait of Eberhard Schöngarth 133
Illustration 7.2 On this slightly retouched press photograph,
Hans Frank is presenting HSSPF Friedrich-
Wilhelm Krüger with a certificate of
appointment to the office of “State Secretary
for Security” in the General Government.
Schöngarth (left) is looking on in the
background, alongside an unknown man 137
Illustration 8.1 Portrait of Josef Bühler 152
Illustrations • ix
Illustration 8.2 Slightly retouched press photograph taken
to mark a meeting between (from left to
right) Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, Heinrich
Himmler, Hans Frank and Bühler, wearing a
State Secretary’s uniform complete with riding
breeches 155
Illustration 9.1 Portrait of Roland Freisler 171
Illustration 10.1 Portrait of Gerhard Klopfer 189
Illustration 10.2 Gerhard Klopfer with his first wife Hildegard.
It was common for SS-members to pose
together for a picture for the obligatory
application to receive the allowance to get
married (August 1937) 192
Illustration 11.1 Portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger 207
Illustration 11.2 On this report issued to document Kritzinger’s
imprisonment in Nuremberg, an unknown
person changed the entry stating his
previous occupation from “state secretary” to
“undersecretary” to make it clear he had not
been a minister 218
Illustration 12.1 Portrait of Georg Leibbrandt 224
Illustration 13.1 Portrait of Martin Luther 245
Illustration 13.2 Luther posing at his desk in Rauchstraße, with
telephone, ink-pen, documents and folders 247
Illustration 14.1 Portrait of Alfred Meyer 266
Illustration 14.2 Alfred Meyer carrying his two elder daughters
in the bright sunshine behind his ‘miner’s
home’ in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck 269
Illustration 15.1 Portrait of Erich Neumann 283
Illustration 15.2 Neumann forming part of the guard of honor
on the steps of Berlin Cathedral at Hermann
Göring’s marriage in April 1935 287
Illustration 16.1 Portrait of Wilhelm Stuckart 301
Illustration 16.2 Official photograph by Hitler’s personal
photographer Heinrich Hoffmann: Stuckart
