Berlin was a
center of Jewish life in Germany
and — as the capital of the Reich — also the center for
the planning of the "Final
Solution," the decision to kill the Jews of Europe. The Wannsee
Conference, named for the resort district in southwestern Berlin
where it was held, took place in January 1942. High-ranking officials
from the Nazi party, the SS,
and the German state met to coordinate and finalize what they referred
to as the "final solution to the Jewish problem." At the conference,
these officials were informed that the SS would be responsible for carrying
out the killing program and that the Jews of Europe would be deported
to occupied Poland and
killed.
