Adolf Hitler invaded Poland in September, 1939,
starting World War II.
By the winter of 1942,
his armies were freezing and starving in the snows of Russia,
where his best General had died of a heart attack,
and America had entered the war.
For the first time, Hitler's dream of a German empire
to last a thousand years was in doubt.
While he hired and fired General’s,
and the winter grew colder,
15 of his officials
were ordered from their commands and ministries
to meet in a quiet lakeside residence
in Wannsee in Berlin,
far from the crisis at the front.
In two hours,
these men changed the world forever.
Only one record of what was said and done here survives
from the wreckage of what was
the Thousand-Year Reich.
How many rolls?
Enough for 4 hours, Sir.
Too many.
Two hours' worth should be sufficient.
Do we have enough?
How many fell?
I am sure we have a sizeable inventory, Sir.
You are sure or you know?
I know, Sir.
Itemize the cost. He pays.
Make it a separate report to me.
And keep him where I don't see him.
Smile.
It is a fine day.
Yes, Sir.
All right then, let's look smart.
Heil Hitler.
No silence in Latvia, no silence like this.
You're surprised it's better in Berlin?
Heil Hitler.
We've met, Colonel?
Indeed we have.
I'm State Secretary Buhler.
Indeed you are. I do remember.
Colonel Schongarth. Sir.
Major Lange.
Heil Hitler.
If there's anything any of you gentlemen need,
please don't hesitate to call an orderly or me.
My appreciation to the man who picked this spot.
That would be General Heydrich.
Beautiful house,
from a more elegant time.
Have there been any messages from Krakow, my office?
No, Sir.
So, where do we go?
The major has come a long way.
The man deserves a drink.
This way, gentlemen.
I'm sure you'll find the wines,
and, of course, we are not limited to the wines, first rate.
Yes, the cold will dry your throat.
Drink, a smoke.
Excellent...
Put this book away.
Sir.
It was not built for this purpose,
not for meetings.
These floors are not for boots.
It was a private home?
Private home, yes.
Whose?
We believe it was owned by a Jew.
There's some dispute.
Well, in the SS we travel deluxe.
Always.
Well, we've earned it surely.
Not everyone agrees.
Heil Hitler!
Heil Hitler.
It's running like a damn truck.
They claim that they've replaced all the belts and the plugs,
but it sounds like a cement mixer.
Can someone here check?
I can't hear myself think in there.
Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.
Ah, the east is well represented.
And we're here first.
Heil Hitler.
Meet Major Lange, a very tired man.
No, please, I am enjoying these surroundings.
Where can I find Colonel Eichmann, please?
Sir, follow me, Sir.
Eichmann?
Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.
Excuse the interruption.
Colonel.
My memorandum of recommendations.
I have here another copy in the circumstance
General Heydrich would like to be refreshed of its contents,
for the sake of maintaining harmony
between the Gestapo and the foreign office.
Um, that was my thought.
Yes.
And are there any changes to the list of the invited?
No.
Oh, so even Dr. Kritzinger will be here?
Yes. Yes, well, he will not be happy.
Um, here we are, and how are you?
Very well, thank you.
I'll make sure that the General sees these.
And when will the General arrive?
He should be on the ground any moment.
Heil Hitler.
May I take your coat, Sir?
Your hat?
Neumann, director, Office of the Four-Year Plan.
Four-Year Plan, Sir?
Oh, yes. How are you, Neumann?
Well, I'm always surprised and flattered, Dr. Stuckart,
that you recognize me.
And I'm always thanking you for saying so.
Neumann, director, Office of the Four-Year Plan.
Dr. Stuckart.
Heil Hitler. Welcome, Sir.
Yes, yes, Heil Hitler. Thank you for the welcome.
General Heydrich not here yet, I expect.
Am I correct? Yes, Sir.
He loves a grand entrance, yes?
...running a bank somewhere by now.
I understand the purpose,
but no idea what the man might propose.
What are meetings about? Power.
No, consolidation of power, no doubt.
We should benefit by that.
Kritzinger, a pleasure.
I'm pleased you're here.
Morbid curiosity.
We have settled this question.
So I thought.
What has been discussed to this moment?
Everything except the fighting in Moscow.
Oh, I've heard we are counterattacking.
Richenau's got them out of the trenches and on the move.
Richenau is dead.
Let us not gossip like maids at the market.
We are stalled for the winter. Time to face reality.
Heil Hitler.
So, is Colonel Eichmann here?
Yes, Sir.
Tell him Klopfer has arrived.
And the others?
Neumann, director, Office of the Four-Year Plan.
For Goring?
For Reichsmarshall Goring, yes, his office.
And you, Sir? Luther.
And what is your plan?
Where will we be in 4 years, do you think?
Living in the White House?
Heil Hitler.
Welcome, Sir.
You are very well fixed up here, I think.
Yes, I think we are.
I'm late because of a briefing.
We have this General who is now trying to capture Moscow,
who has never commanded one damn brigade.
That is what I've been hearing and that is why I'm late.
Not at all, Sir.
So, is there beer? Yes.
Er, and where is the boys' room?
I have been briefed by the Governor General
regarding what concerns, what anticipations.
That is private.
We will all discover what new concepts our SS friends have in mind.
Schongarth!
Not bad for French.
Neumann, Director,
Office of the Four-Year Plan.
I'm very pleased to be here.
Who may I be speaking to?
It is very, very complex, these laws.
A lot of time and thought has been put to them
and some of these here,
well, you notice all the SS,
they have little idea of what is lawful
and no respect for what they do know.
Oh, certainly not these gentlemen.
To them, laws are like ice cream.
Easily melted.
I suspect--
I suspect that is why this meeting,
which is under my department after all,
is being called by the SS.
Do you know?
Only what the invitation suggested.
They always want to meet.
The SS love to meet,
and they always want something more.
Though they have everything.
Has anyone heard anything remotely optimistic
about the Moscow assault?
No good news. Sympathy's all round.
It's cold.
What?
It must be cold.
What've we got, eh?
I see wine, but, no beer.
And what are these? Cigar, Sir?
Please.
Neumann,
director, Office of the Four-Year Plan.
Luther... excuse me.
Sir, this is, um...
director.
A close associate of Reichsmarshall Goring.
Neumann, I introduce Dr. Klopfer.
A close associate of the brown eminence.
Brown? Excuse me--
I represent Martin Bormann,
the party chairman of the Thousand-Year Plan.
Heil Hitler.
Is Dr. Kritzinger here?
Yes, he is, Sir.
That's a relief.
Heil Hitler.
Are they on their way? Not yet, Sir.
Who is late? We are.
Who is not here?
General Heydrich, Sir.
But he's on his way.
He will make his entrance.
Everything is fine. Everyone's comfortable.
Food, cigars, wine.
Colonel.
He's here, Sir.
Heil Hitler.
Muller.
Colonel.
I love this house.
Seeing it from the air,
you can appreciate the architect.
Are we ready? Absolutely, Sir.
And after the war, it will be my home.
Marvelous home, so...
Sir, there have been questions unrelated about Moscow,
but I think I have deflected them successfully.
Heil Hitler. Understood.
If we keep doing this all day, we will never finish.
With no disrespect to our Fuhrer,
it is suspended until the conclusion of business, fine?
Yes, Sir. Very good.
There's wine, Sir.
You have all had what you need?
Well, then let us do what we are here for,
and refreshments after?
There will be a buffet lunch.
Very good... Dr. Kritzinger.
Important that you be here, let us begin.
Our Fuhrer. How's his mood?
Well, commanding, of course.
His General’s in Russia are a disgrace.
In calling this conference--
In a moment, in a moment.
Gentlemen, your places are identified.
Thank you all for coming.
Please, sit down.
I'm sorry that I held you up a little,
but you had elegant wine, I'm sure.
And no one there to say it's too early for that.
Now, are you all set up?
He's prepared. Very good. Well then,
at the risk of sounding like the first day at summer camp,
let us go around the table and introduce ourselves
for those who do not know others.
I shall save myself for last and start with General Muller.
Major General Heinrich Muller, SS Gestapo.
Klopfer, representing the party,
that is who I speak for.
I am Kritzinger, Ministerial Director of the Reich Chancellery.
I appreciate being called, but I wonder why I'm here.
The topic to be discussed,
the coordination of the Jewish question,
I believe was resolved.
With the Fuhrer stating to me and to my superior Genera
It will be.
So...
General Hofmann,
Race and Settlement Main Office.
We deal with matters of race and settlement.
Is it me?
Leibbrandt,
the Political Office of the Ministry
for all we hold and administer in Eastern Poland,
the Baltics, and in the Soviet Union--
And I am the State Secretary for the Ministry as a whole.
Give them your name.
Meyer, doctor, sorry.
Stuckart, Interior Ministry.
Martin Luther,
Under Secretary of the Foreign Ministry.
I met almost everybody.
My name is Neumann, Director,
Office of the Four-Year Plan.
Lange,
Deputy Commander of SS Task Forces in Latvia,
among other things.
Oh, we all have other things.
I'm Josef Buhler, Secretary of State
of the General Government of German-Occupied Poland.
How cold is it up there?
Better Krakow than Warsaw.
Now that it is run by Germans,
you should be spared those Polish winters.
Not the case.
Schongarth.
SS assigned to the General Government.
Dr. Freisler, Ministry of Justice.
Also I hold rank in the Storm Troopers.
So, that is who I am.
Adolf Eichmann, SS Gestapo,
Office of Jewish Affairs and that should be,
yes, that's all.
And I am Heydrich,
SS Chief of Reich Security, Main Office
and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
And welcome.
Now, you have each been given some papers.
These are for you alone.
No copies to be made, not to be seen by others
or discussed with others, except superiors.
How we deal with matters here
must be held secret from our enemies.
We control events better when we control opinion.
Today, each of us becomes a bearer of secrets.
And our secretary will be discreet.
He agrees. He agrees. Excellent.
Communication between us after today
will pass in both directions through Lt. Colonel Eichmann,
acting as my deputy for all Jewish matters.
He is your focal point.
So, to begin.
We have a storage problem in Germany with these Jews
and there have been conversations for almost a year now
about this Jew and that Jew and the complexities of the law.
And this problem, as you, I'm sure know,
has tormented us.
As you know, we first undertook to expel them from all means
by which our people would have to deal with them.
Every sphere of life of our German people.
The laws we enacted at Nuremberg,
and we should all drink a toast to Dr. Stuckart for devising them.
Co-author, modestly.
I am the co-author.
They established the fundamental legality
for the creation of a Jew-free society,
a Jew-free economy, for the world to see.
And we indeed have eliminated the Jew
from our national life.
Now, more than that,
the Jew himself must be physically eradicated
from our living space.
Clarification.
Absolutely, there will be a moment for that.
But if I may, we pursued a vigorous policy of emigration,
but who would take more of them?
Who would want them,
was the policy's ultimate limitation.
Every border in Europe rejects them
or charges outrageously to accept them.
America?
Even America, thank you, yes,
where Jews whisper all the time in Roosevelt's ear,
still they turn them away.
Then, in acquiring Poland,
we acquired 2 1/2 million more.
So, by last July we were met with a new situation.
We would, in very short order,
be acquiring some 5 million Jews
as we conquered Russia.
The dimensions of this problem
then have magnified astoundingly,
5 million.
Exactly the problem. Our ghettos are full--
All those ghettos, yes, with, um, Polish names,
fully occupied.
But hold for now, please, if you would.
At that time, last July,
confronting this new situation,
Reichsmarshall Goring prepared a directive.
You have a copy in your folders.
The operative words, if you will permit me to read,
"I hereby charge you with making all necessary preparations
"in regard to organizational and financial matters
"for bringing about a complete solution
"of the Jewish question
in the German sphere of influence in Europe."
Now, for that I read the cleansing
of the entire continent of Europe.
You, you see, the word "cleansing"--
An accurate word, I think.
If I may go on,
in the second paragraph.
"Wherever other Governmental agencies are involved,
these are to cooperate with you."
I hope, so on, so on,
"as necessary for the accomplishment
of the desired solution of the Jewish question."
So...
this is our mandate, all of us.
May I say, in fairness,
the Jewish question falls within
the responsibilities of my department--
If you will give me a moment or two, Dr. Kritzinger,
the document is in your folder.
Yes, it is in your folder.
I'm sure it is.
Finally, what has happened since that directive was written.
Succinctly now.
We are standing still in Russia.
The Americans have now joined the war.
Both of these events,
a further drain on our military, our economy,
our manpower, our food supply.
We cannot store these Jews.
Emigration is over
and the inevitable solution is what we together at this table
will discuss this afternoon.
We will go on.
Now, you will find a document
listing the remaining Jewish population
by country in Europe
and whatever the USSR or Russia
calls itself for the time it has left.
As I mentioned, emigration policy will stop.
I apologize.
A call for General Heydrich.
See who it is and end the calls.
Yes, Sir.
We will take but a moment.
Please sit, Dr. Kritzinger.
Make us all comfortable, hmm?
Where is this going?
Yes, this is Lieutenant Colonel Eichmann.
Yes, I understand, major,
but the General has requested to be free of calls at this time.
If you wish to explain the matter to me--
yes.
Yes, I'm sure if you call his office, you--
yes, yes.
Heil Hitler.
This meeting is not taking place.
You are to take no phone calls for anyone at this meeting.
Anyone.
Unless the Fuhrer calls.
And he won't.
Understood? Sir.
So here is Field Marshal Reichenau
strapped to a chair
and put, convulsing, on the plane,
where he dies.
Now, he wanted to retreat as deeply as Runstedt did,
but Runstedt got his medal and Reichenau the hereafter.
A Major Schwarzheim
was reluctant to give me any message.
He does not appreciate you as I do.
Emigration...
the policy that will take the place of emigration,
and we have collected enough practical experience to do it well,
is evacuation.
Which differs from emigration in what way?
Evacuation to where?
Let us postpone that question for a while.
To Hell, one hopes. Many already have.
Do they even have a Hell?
They do now. We provide it.
KRITZINGER; We have received assurances
that these Jews are held in livable conditions.
You are postponing. That is your prerogative.
Will I have an opportunity to be heard on this?
On my word of honor.
If I may?
132,000 Jews left in Germany proper,
Austria, 43,700,
occupied eastern territories, 420,000,
General Government, 2,284,000,
Bialystok, 400,000,
and Moravia, 74,200,
Estonia, not a one.
The very best thing I have ever heard about Estonia.
You have this list. I will not read them all.
Plenty in France, Romania, England, USSR.
5 million in what is, or will be soon,
our sphere of control over 11 million chosen people.
Sir, the changing definitions--
Yes, go ahead, thank you.
Except that there are countries that define Jewishness non-racially,
merely as religious practice.
England, America.
Therefore, by our racial principles,
there may be many additional uncounted Israelites.
And he speaks Jewish.
No, he does, he does.
What then confronts us here,
in open discussion,
which will inform the choices we must make,
is what to do
to deal with this staggering number of Jews overwhelming us.
Now, my suggestion is to take all able-bodied Jews,
separated according to sex,
to the east to work in construction units,
specifically for road building--
Yes, can we be practical?
You are hardly describing
the promised livable conditions for these people.
On the face of it, your plan--
Excuse me, does not succeed.
It is, um, well, fanciful.
You have, in this collection here
5 million Russo European Jews,
10% agriculture, 15% urban workers,
tradesmen, almost 20%,
bureaucrats, almost 24%,
doctors, writers, journalists, actors, and so on...
almost 33%.
Building roads?
75% of your 5 million
have not picked up anything heavier than a pencil.
Yes, and most will be casualties,
eliminated by natural causes.
We intend to be complete.
We will comb Europe from west to east.
Starting with the protectorates, Bohemia and Moravia,
we will evacuate them first.
All to be evacuated Jews, group by group,
will be sent to, call them transit ghettos,
and then transported to the east.
Sir, please.
You want yours first. I understand.
Let me make my case. You will be heard.
When in your plan do you take their women away?
How they love to make the beast.
Control yourself.
Jews who have beyond 65 years
will be moved into old age ghettos,
possibly Theresienstadt will be chosen,
where they can expire at their own speed.
We will sweep all severely wounded Jewish veterans
and those given the highest military decorations,
the Iron Cross First Class.
That fine distinction will be abandoned.
They go, too, into the old age ghettos
or we will be drowning in requests
for exemptions and interventions.
I was referring to intervention of another kind.
Below the waist.
Oh, this is all very beguiling,
but when you include privileges for these Jews or those Jews,
the party chancellery sees its interests a certain way,
and Martin Bormann, I can speak for him,
has his authority as well, from the Fuhrer.
We do not just surrender our prerogative
to decide Jew questions.
Everyone's point of view will be considered.
Did you ever see an animal with two heads?
They do not live.
Want to see Bormann and Goring fight it out?
We are not trying to roll over anyone.
Quite the opposite.
Does anyone else want to raise this question now?
Because I tell you, I have been asked
to direct the release of Germany and all of Europe
from the Jewish stranglehold,
and I believe that together we will.
But the brief remains clear:
all of Europe, England,
from Lapland to Libya,
from Vladivostok to Belfast, no Jews.
Not one.
Now, I pro--
I propose that the appropriate expert from the Foreign Ministry
act as channel to the SS security police in each country.
I am counting on you
to be my link to the Foreign Ministry.
Now, I think, having explained in General
what we are challenged to do,
I would be grateful for comments and questions.
And let us have some refreshment in here.
Pretend we are the directors of I.G. Farben.
That's how they do it, is it not?
No, that is how we do it.
How we do it.
Gentlemen, please.
My friend, I have read your recommendations.
I appreciate the effort and the thought.
I heard some of what I wrote
in what you have already said.
I think not.
I hear that Heydrich has a little Jew blood in him.
Why don't you ask him?
The numbers are misleading.
Misleading?
Who's a Jew is another question, you see.
Not a heterogeneous--
not a heterogeneous population.
And how is it that you can speak Hebrew?
Or is it only Yiddish you speak?
Well, I lived among them, I worked among them,
and I picked up a few words,
Jewish, Yiddish, what they were, not enough to speak.
So, I went in search of a rabbi.
Rabbi means teacher, I came to find out.
But, may I tell you the Lord's honest truth?
So many of our highest ranking officers,
whose responsibility it is to deal with the Israelites,
they make no attempt to get inside the Jewish head.
I went to visit this rabbi, old man, long beard,
in his one-room flat,
and when he saw me,
his eyes grew as large as hen's eggs.
I asked him to teach me his language and he agreed.
And he said that he would, but that he would charge me.
Of course.
So, I applied to my commander for funds and I was denied.
Now, I've run into this opposition all my life
so I paid my own money, very little, not much.
And he taught me some vocabulary,
letters of the alphabet,
but looking back I realize it was poor judgment on my part,
because I could've so easily had the old man arrested,
put into prison, and demanded lessons from him
in his cell free of charge.
One day, he went out.
He was rounded up and shipped off
because he had gone out unadvisedly.
And I thought, that's so stupid.
Why are they so stupid?
Didn't he know that I would've protected him?
At least until my lessons were complete.
I want to be through by 2:30 or earlier.
There is no reason why we cannot keep going.
I'd prefer you all to stay at the table.
There will be a buffet lunch.
Excellent.
Now, settle down. We're moving along.
You have the overall understanding,
but it's clear that some areas will evacuate--
What about our friends the Italians?
The Italians.
We must all trust the good Lord
to save us from our Italian friends.
In the last analysis, if they do not purge their Jews,
then we will go down and accomplish it,
and put their priorities in order.
In France, even where we aren't occupying,
they will ship their Jews out comfortably.
Now, here is another problem.
The Foreign Ministry sees difficulty
at going at these evacuations too fast in Scandinavia.
As you say, Lapland.
Unless we tie up a lot more troops there,
troops which we need for the Russian campaign,
Moscow,
the Scandinavians will not cooperate.
What do your people see for the rest of Europe?
Foreign Ministry sees no difficulty with the Balkans,
southeast and western Europe; this is very good.
Sir. Hmm? Yes.
The Race and Settlement Main Office
is planning on sending an expert to Hungary
for general orientation on our policies
and I think that should take place at the same time
as you send your adviser.
That will put some iron in the glove, so to speak.
The glove itself is iron, Sir,
and there should be no confusion as to where policy emanates,
don't you agree?
I should hope that established relationships
will be maintained.
If they are productive, but not if they are not.
If I may speak for the group.
It is not my intention--
What is your intention?
The work done by our department.
Our particular expert is prepared--
We both serve the Reichsfuhrer, but he gave the command to me.
I suggest your adviser serve as an assistant to my man.
That preserves the relative powers of our offices, does it not?
Yes, it certainly does, yes.
That is how it should be.
I will leave it to you, then,
to be in touch with Colonel Eichmann.
Yes.
Settled. We are moving along.
Now we are presented with a difficult problem.
My instinct is to be Alexandrian and solve a difficult tangle
with a sharp, clean stroke this afternoon.
All our actions must be predicated on law.
Everything we have done flows from the Nuremberg laws,
which Dr. Stuckart brought forth to the Reichstag in 1935,
and now we have to examine those.
The blood and honor laws
in regard to the problems of mixed marriages
and persons of mixed blood.
Not only who is a Jew,
but how, in each defined circumstance,
the Jew is expunged from society,
the Government, the economy,
through ordinances.
The tapestry, if you'll permit some pride...
The exemptions written into the law
allow too many Jews to remain among us.
We address that problem by examining each category
and every exemption.
Now, there have been communications with the Reich Chancellery head,
Lammers, who has discussed these questions, I believe, with the Fuhrer.
You asked why you are here.
You represent him.
And your own opinion, we would like that too.
Lammers has indeed met with the Fuhrer
or his staff on this question
and reached an understanding.
Dr. Kritzinger,
can we come to a further understanding here?
What can we all agree on?
What I would like agreed here
is that mixed blood persons of the first degree,
they have two Jewish grandparents,
they are half-Jews, they are just Jews,
they go, their children go.
And now there are, in the law, as of now, two exceptions.
If you would.
For first degree mixed,
if they're married to Germans and they have children,
they're exempted.
Their children would be second degree mixed,
who would be treated as Germans.
The other exception is for first degree mixed
who the Reich has already chosen to honor with special privilege
for whatever reason.
We are talking here of men and women who live as Germans.
They do not worship as Jews, they do not behave as Jews,
but they have some quantity of blood.
The genetic Jew.
And in those cases we are going to reexamine
each individual determination
and perhaps revoke their exemption.
The Nuremberg laws--
And whoever receives exemption
better damn well have some extraordinary merits personally,
not just by the merits of a German parent or husband or wife.
And those who are exempt from evacuation,
they too will fall within certain categories--
Could you, General sorry.
I have the real feeling
I evacuated 30,000 Jews already by shooting them.
At Riga.
Is what I did "evacuation"?
When they fell, were they evacuated?
There are another 20,000 at least
waiting for similar evacuation.
I just think it is helpful to know what words mean.
With all respect.
If I might,
I think it's unnecessary to burden the record.
Yes.
In my personal opinion, they are evacuated.
Explain! I have just done so.
That is not, no, that is contrary
to what the chancellery has been told.
I have directly been assured, I have...
...that...
Purge the Jews, yes.
But to annihilate them...
that we have undertaken to systematically
annihilate all the Jews of Europe,
no, no, no, that possibility
has personally been denied to me by the Fuhrer!
And it will continue to be.
Yes, I understand.
Yes...
he will continue to deny it.
My apologies.
Do you accept my apologies?
Of course.
So very kind.
Those mixed in the first degree.
Yes, those mixed in the first degree,
who are exempted, will be sterilized.
May I just point out
with regard to special exemptions.
Now, it's widely known,
I've heard the opinion expressed myself,
that there are 80 million good Germans
and each one of them knows his decent Jew
even if he regards all the rest as vermin.
If there are decent Jews,
then before they are decent,
and indeed after, they are Jews.
No, first degree exempted will be sterilized.
No more children
and eventually no more mixed blood once and for all.
It is important to know what words mean,
but it is important to remember that a thousand years from now,
no matter who holds the power,
history will be written in those words.
Do you expect the men
serenely to submit to being sterilized?
Why not? They've already had their cocks clipped.
It's voluntary, man or woman.
One can lose one's possibility to reproduce
or one can be evacuated.
If a first mixed is sterilized, then, of course,
the Nuremberg restrictions no longer apply.
The Nuremberg laws are very specific--
When I am done.
Thank you. Please.
As for mixed of the second degree,
those born to a half-Jew and German,
in other words, 1/4 Jew,
3/4 German equals German.
With exceptions.
If both parents rather than one are mixed blood,
the child's a Jew.
If the child is very Jewish looking or sounding,
even with only 1/4 mixed blood--
When that blood is dominant?
Then he is a Jew.
Third exception.
A mixed second who has a criminal or political record.
Excuse me, Sir, is this a second or a third?
A mixed second.
Third exception.
In other words, he that shows he behaves like a Jew,
then he will be considered as such.
And if any of these exceptions to the rule
of second mixed marry a German,
then they will be evacuated; no special dispensations.
The marriage laws are very complex--
Yes, because mixed marriages
inevitably include German relatives
and they can have a vested interest
in the fate of the couple
and also of children born to the marriage.
So, here it is.
Marriages between mixed firsts and Germans,
if they have had no children,
depending on the repercussions
of the German side of the marriage,
either the half-Jew is evacuated or to the old age ghetto.
Theresienstadt?
Possibly, somewhere.
The same holds true for the full blood Jew with a German wife or husband.
Now, if there are children,
if the rules classify them as Jews,
they go with the Jew parent, evacuation or ghetto,
depending on the individual case.
If they're classified as German,
then that spares both the child and the Jew parent.
Jews of first mixed married to first mixed, they're Jews.
Children as well, treated as such.
First mixed married to second mixed, the same. Children are the same.
Unless they're exempted by special considerations,
they are gone.
Otherwise to the ghetto, possibly Theresienstadt.
In all cases
the SS will be the determining agency.
No question lingers in your mind about that, does it?
Sterilization will be a growth industry.
Who would not choose infertility to avoid evacuation?
They would never know. Would never know what?
If you use a word other than sterilize--
You think they would never know?
It is simply a matter of secrecy.
The smell of blood carries very far.
I find the plan unworkable.
I find the plan personally insulting
in that I have given years to codifying the laws
regarding interracial marriage,
and now I'm presented with this clumsy, forgive me,
unworkable structure.
My work, these laws,
any legal code worthy of the name
restricts the enforcers of the law
as well as its subjects.
There are some things you cannot do.
As you see it.
What I see is all I have to contribute here.
Let me offer a modification.
A simple change we can all accept.
Maybe this helps, the outline.
Sir, what you have suggested,
and, not to put too fine a point on it,
you have said that the half-mixed will be eliminated.
Evacuated.
Evacuated, my mistake.
Now, that is a wholesale departure from the law.
But my suggestion--
Yes, which is?
I say the half-mixed should get the choice we talked about.
To be either sterilized or taken away.
Does that not come closer to the spirit at least
of the Nuremberg law?
Dr. Stuckart, does it?
No. Sorry, no.
Sterilization is promising,
but, attempting a supersession of what are,
are clearly defined laws
in order to impose all these subjective evaluations.
It's like, forgive me,
it is like the imposing of ad hoc law.
Depending on subjective evaluations
as to whether he looks Jewish or he has a Jewish personality
or whatever else
is subject to personal interpretation and variation,
including the assertions of the damn Jew himself.
And what does this do?
It subverts the Nuremberg laws
and it perpetuates disrespect for the law.
I think we are absolutely basing our proposals--
With all due respect, in all frankness.
It's a tangle.
And this is not pride of authorship,
I am simply reacting
to the bureaucratic train wreck that's to follow.
Please,
it is simply solved-- sterilize them all.
We could call it, what could we call it?
Medical re-socialization or something
that we can find ways.
The biological necessities are all met,
my--
the Nuremberg laws are respected,
a simple procedure--
A snip here, a snip there.
This is not a joke!
It is not, this is--
X-rays. Well, that is how you do it.
Exactly how?
You have this X-ray machine built into a counter or a desk.
Some unfortunate Jew
stands at attention in front of the desk,
and bzzzz?
I am not coming to your office.
So, you either raise the desk or lower the desk...
A certain subterfuge--
I do not know if it sterilizes the female.
That is a technical question.
Not voluntary, you're saying?
No, every Jew of whatever degree.
Whoever betrothed to, however mixed.
Whatever service to the State.
Bzzz!
So, what you're saying is there's no need to evacuate them...
We pinch off the race at this generation.
The law of the Reich! We make the law we need.
Why am I telling you this?
How many lawyers are in this room? Raise your hand.
Oh, Jesus Christ,
it's worse than I thought.
The children, what then, for them?
Well?
Oh, the children, well, you just line them up
in front of their desks,
and X-rays toast their little gonads.
If I might?
For perspective,
we have already been using sterilization
for the mentally defective since 1939 in our T-4 program.
T-4?
Euthanasia is the correct term, yes?
Yes, in fact, Reichsfuhrer Himmler
discussed it with the General .
Apparently a doctor at the Biological Institute in Dresden
has a simple injection-- you can father no children.
Where can I get it?
It would be useful with the ladies.
I am fixed, my dear.
Of course, it is, as yet,
only tested with mice and rats.
Actually, you would not need the injection,
just the papers to say that you had had it.
I have figures, but they're not exact.
Between 1933 and 1936,
roughly 169,000 and by now, to date,
possibly 300,000 under the law
for the protection of German blood and honor,
have been sterilized by various methods.
X-rays, injecting some corrosive chemical
directly into the womb.
Yes, this was only for the Reich itself,
not occupied territories.
Yes.
Are they fit for labor after these methods?
Well, with the X-rays,
it's a problem of dosage.
Less a problem, I think, with the women, but...
less a problem with the women.
Secretary Buhler makes an important point.
Labor. Yes, exactly, labor.
Now, I'm not implying that our problems in the Reich
are the same as in the eastern territories,
but the need for workers as the military need men,
the need for production, is only growing.
That is why sterilization...
This man is wasting our time.
...it leaves our captive workforce,
what remains of it.
I do not think our people want to wait a generation
to end this problem.
We have deferred Jews by the thousands
in armaments, construction.
Wait, I can give you an exemplar.
It's just a quote from a letter
from the Bruder Boblick Company,
but there are many companies...
Just the sound of his voice
and the sun goes down.
...the specialists for I.G. Farben...
I do not think you understand.
Just in Berlin, over 10,000 Jews
in the metal industry alone.
About 19,000 altogether in Berlin,
and that's just Berlin.
Failing our production goals even now!
For the war!
Makes a point--we are moving too fast here,
nothing has been thought through.
This question of sterilization
and the question of deportation are separate.
Yes, but linked.
Deportation, evacuation, elimination.
Where I am, we have to move them out now, quickly.
Wipe them away.
Yeah, not to return.
The truth is there are labor shortages
in the Reich and elsewhere that we control.
There is no argument about that fact.
Everywhere, and in our four-year plan--
Oh, not that fucking four-year plan again.
But our war is against the Jews.
I do not see the logic.
We will not sterilize every Jew and wait for them to die.
We will not sterilize every Jew and then exterminate the race.
That's farcical. Dead men don't hump,
dead women don't get pregnant.
Death is the most reliable form of sterilization,
put it that way.
So, who is deferred?
First degree mixed, married to Germans,
and second degree mixed children are exempt.
On an individual basis,
first degree mixed who have been awarded special privilege.
I cannot give a damn rule for everything.
Can I just say one word more?
Now, in the obligation to maintain a lawful--
Another lecture.
...what we would be saying to those...
where we are departing from the legal letter
and deporting a Jew married to a German,
a new law will be required--
Why don't you write it?
Consider, consider, the Jews are taken away.
The German spouses will presumably
inherit the property of the Jewish spouses,
go to court,
a death certificate will be applied for,
and what happens to your secret killings then?
No matter what you call them,
the secret is out, dear friends.
Perhaps not inheritance, perhaps divorce,
freedom to remarry...
so, a requisite divorce mechanism,
dealing with all these marriages to be terminated,
becomes the Reich's responsibility
to its German citizens. Fuck.
I am speaking!
Now, except for those initiated before the spouse is deported,
the courts are going to be so busy with divorces
that the civil courts will be on 24-hour shifts
and the litigation wait will be accounted in decades.
Or longer.
Well, I, for one, have no sympathy
with Germans who climb into bed
with members of the tribe.
Nor do I.
I ask myself, what is this concern?
When the ruling principle of our Government
and our party is to make Germany Jew-free,
you are arguing to let these yids stay?
To influence, to operate freely?
With the exception that you neuter them?
They're not free, they are not free!
The law restricts them, it isolates them--
Perhaps the judge has some special love for them.
Yes, yes, yes, special love.
For whom? For Jews?
Oh, wonderful.
You don't have my credentials.
Forgive me-- from your uniform
I can infer that you're shallow,
ignorant, and naive about the Jews.
Your line, what the party rants on about is,
how inferior they are, some subspecies,
and I keep saying how wrong that is!
They are sublimely clever!
And they are intelligent as well.
My indictments of that race
are stronger and heavier because they are real.
Not your uneducated ideology.
They are arrogant and self-obsessed
and calculating and reject the Christ
and I will not have them pollute German blood.
Please, doctor. He doesn't understand.
And neither do his people.
Deal with the reality of the Jew
and the world will applaud us.
Treat them as imaginary phantoms,
evil, inhuman fantasies,
and the world will have justified contempt for us.
To kill them casually
without regard for the law martyrs them.
It will be their victory.
Sterilization recognizes them
as a part of our species,
but prevents them from being a part of our race.
They'll disappear soon enough,
and we will have acted in defense of our race,
and of our species, and by the law.
This fellow mentioned the law
for the protection of German blood.
I wrote that law.
And when you have my credentials,
then we'll talk about who loves the Jews
and who hates them.
Pigs don't know how to hate.
I note, too, that when it comes to
the half-mixed, that to kill them,
abandons that half of their blood which is German.
I'll remember you.
You should; I'm very well known.
We should take out the references
to Christ and such.
I should've stopped him.
Gentlemen, if I may, for a moment.
Dr. Stuckart has raised the question
of administrative consequences of evacuation.
He is a very brilliant scholar of the law
and I am sure just as totally committed
to a Jew-free Europe as any of us.
Let us take a moment.
Go on with the food.
If you are suggesting that you have dominion over me,
just remember this-- even the party,
which I have served loyally since 1922,
answers to the Government.
They both answer to the Fuhrer.
You may be a friend of Goring,
but if you're a betting man,
put your money on Bormann.
I hear you've been flying
that powerful little plane of yours.
This morning, yes.
Yes, I'm never comfortable off the ground.
Not me, I admit.
Nietzsche advises the secret of enjoying life is to
live dangerously.
He enjoyed it so much, he went mad.
Look at the world and tell me
the pleasures of sanity.
Excuse me, doctor.
Would you join me for a moment?
Thank you.
We will accomplish this.
I will not allow
administrative technicalities
to slow it down.
Every agency will jump to follow my order,
or asses will sting.
And there are no shortages of meat hooks
on which to hang enemies of the State.
This will be an SS operation.
And as the war goes on,
the SS will more and more command the agenda,
and put marks against the names
of the less than cooperative.
You have a choice to make.
Well, you understand that I respect...
Please.
You will still have to make your choice.
Do not let a strutting, imbecilic,
porcine prick like Klopfer
make it for you.
I do not wish to see the bullies,
I admit, we have more than our share of them in the SS,
take too much of an interest in you.
Interest in me?
Do you not think?
And all I want from this meeting
is unanimity and no trouble
getting what has to be done done.
With you at my side, so much is possible.
I have done this arithmetic.
The real size of the labor force
is already a million less than the figures show.
The economic considerations
are not the only considerations, you see.
I'll say they are not.
Have you done the extrapolations?
My friend, with due respect,
may I say fuck the extrapolations?
I hope you understand
I want to be as useful as I can.
Well, we must be in contact.
Exactly.
From where he sits,
he does not have the ghettos or the stink.
And he's burglarizing administrative control
from the Governor General clearly.
Privileges of rank.
I don't hear any urgency.
Privileges of rank. The higher you go,
the more infallibility is bestowed.
All right, but I don't hear
any cut to bureaucracy solutions, our problems.
You're right. He does not have our problems.
Crap, the privileges of rank.
All that matters is if you have the SS blood group
tattooed under your arm.
That's a secret password for you people.
Oh, what are these suspicions?
I will tell you this.
When cholera hits the ghettos, and typhoid,
your little tattoos won't protect you
from shitting your guts out nonstop
until you dry up and die.
Then tell me about infallibility.
Those little Nuremberg country sausages,
the greasy little ones.
You can keep your fucking oysters.
Oh, my God, what is that?
Can you get them here?
You are Lange?
Yes, Sir.
Who were those 30,000 you say you shot?
When you say, you shot.
In Riga, Latvia.
27,800, I have some responsibility for,
and stood by with my men and allowed
Latvian civilians to kill in mobs.
I receive memos directing the,
one would say, "evacuation" of Jews,
who, shot and buried in soil and corpses,
managed to crawl out still alive.
Not exactly war, is it?
And gas chambers about to come.
What gas chambers?
Gas chambers?
I hear rumors, yes.
This is... more than war.
Must be a different word for this.
Try chaos.
Yes, the rest is argument.
The curse of my profession.
I studied law as well.
Well, how do you apply that education to what you do?
It has made me distrustful of language.
A gun means what it says.
Do we need all this discussion?
He has his style.
Yes, very persuasive.
Is there a problem, Doctor?
Hey, Dr. Kritzinger's coming.
It's your boss. On your feet.
Beautiful lake, is it not?
I'm sorry.
When the war ends,
I shall come to live in this house
and rise to see that lake every day.
And dream comforting things.
I am a dreamer as I think you are.
Yes, it is a dream world.
Ah, Major Lange, how can I help you?
Politics is a nasty game.
I think soldiering
requires the discipline to do the unthinkable,
and politics requires the skill
to get someone else to do the unthinkable for you.
But we need the politics,
so we put up with them.
At least for now.
Yes.
We look forward to a better day.
A peaceful world.
A German culture triumphant.
That is what we work for.
I appreciate the words, Sir.
We are servant soldiers, are we not?
Yes, that is what we are.
Indeed.
Did you ask him?
Ask him what?
Does he have a little Jewish blood?
No, not yet.
Inform me when he answers.
That's what I heard.
A grandmother or a grandfather.
His father.
That's the rumor.
And if it is true,
how happy would he be to tell you?
I want a work document in two days,
if that is possible. It will be.
No more than 30 copies.
Yes, Sir. 30, numbered?
Yes, and the spools, the stenotype record,
have it destroyed. Yes, Sir.
Let's get them back in here. All right.
Who's up there, Sir?
Dr. Klopfer.
Kritzinger is...?
The gentleman outside walking.
Find him.
Sir.
It has got colder.
What a pretty little maid.
I would like to remind all of you
that our Fuhrer annunciates the goals.
It is our task to turn his vision to reality.
We can debate the how, we can debate the when,
up to a point.
We cannot debate the if, Dr. Stuckart.
I am not purposely contentious.
Nor was I trying to be insulting.
I would like to try--
So, we will now discuss method.
Who would like to speak on this?
So, what is being advocated here?
A law dissolving all marriages
between mixed and German.
Why not?
Courts adjust.
As we all do. That is not the point.
You are too inflexible, my friend.
You know damn well the courts would be only too happy
to be rid of the problem.
I am pointing out the difficulty
of casting every Jew and non-Jew
into the sausage machine.
And if that's the plan,
I'm asking that some legal framework be built.
Let's get it done and if we skip a few steps...
Skip a few steps.
When you plane down a piece of wood,
a few chips go flying.
Jews or judges, who are the chips?
I would like to say,
in this discussion,
regarding the tone,
first, abandon the misperception you have
that Dr. Stuckart has some affection for the Jews.
I am sure he does not and his heart is pure.
He believes in supremacy of law.
Jews, in any event,
will vanish soon enough from Germany.
But, the method, yes, well,
you accept casually
the obliteration of legal distinctions
and the use of extreme, inconceivable measures,
that, and I say again,
that our chancellery was assured would not be used.
That is where we have come.
A soldier cannot decide where he chooses to fight.
Where are we here?
General Heydrich was inviting your opinions on the methodology.
Indeed. I can say this--
you're going to have your work cut out
with the Catholic Church,
with the Reich divorcing all those good Catholics,
and that's not gonna make our priests very comfortable,
or the Vatican.
The Vatican has no love for the Jew.
Why should they interfere?
The Lutherans would not object either.
I agree with Dr. Stuckart.
The problems outweigh the short term
ideological satisfaction.
Military necessity comes first, am I wrong?
Why can this not be simpler?
Well, the Ministry of Justice,
which I represent, can live with it gladly.
Major Lange, an opinion.
General, I accept the chain of command.
I have no other gods before it.
The politics of it all, no, nothing.
We are more than a nation of armies.
I hope.
General.
If Dr. Stuckart is saying
we shall turn a few Jew-loving Germans against us,
I would happily throw them all in the same transport.
It is, however, a political decision,
not mine particularly to make.
Can you step back
from trying to settle these details today?
Other agencies will want to be heard.
Now, that is wisdom from my neighbor.
I favor sterilization, I think.
But not wholesale.
What General Heydrich outlined earlier, why not?
X-rays, injections?
Why are we discussing theoretical solutions?
Goethe said that theories are gray,
but that real life is green.
Stop chattering and be realists here.
I insist, as I have before,
that the best way is the quickest way.
Purge them, totally, off our land.
Ideally, off our planet.
And for the eastern territories,
leave us able-bodied workers.
If they are separated, the men from the women,
Q.E.D., no babies.
And evacuate the others, as you outlined.
Get it done.
All right, we've gone around.
I have your opinions. I want to move on.
Let's have the food in here. Yes, Sir.
I wish to keep going. We can eat while we work.
To clarify what I agree with and what I do not,
I agree with the doctor about the complications
of all the variations,
but I favor deportation or,
well, sausage making, right?
I hear talk from some of you
who live here in Germany about labor force.
What is the reality?
At least for the Polish Jews,
damn few of them are fit for labor of any kind.
You do not find Jews with dirt under their fingernails,
so who is this labor force?
What we have
are ghettos filled and overfilled
with the scabrous, the rotting.
We do not have the food for them.
The stink of their diseases does not stop at the walls
and you ship them up to us by the thousands
to deal with. What are we to do?
We have no place to put them.
We have no more place to put our own.
We cannot shoot 3 1/2 million Jews.
We cannot poison them and we cannot use them.
You're gonna have Major Lange and his men
come in with their special methods.
How many Rigas do we have to have?
Build the wall higher.
What we are asking
is that before you flood us with all of these Jews,
let us first clean out ours.
Empty our ghettos into whatever you have for them.
Military too.
Mass shootings by our groups
create morale problems,
especially when the Jew is a German Jew,
who is intellectually superior to the Russian Jew.
And even with cooperative elements of local civilians,
mass slaughter leaves a bad taste.
I can so testify.
We've had to deal with the backlash
when it comes to German ones.
And if your method of disposing of all these Jews
diverts military units and rolling stock
from the eastern front,
then it is a stupid choice.
Recognizing the priority for ridding ourselves
of the Jews...
Not arguing priority, but method and expediency.
Why can't you shoot them?
Didn't you hear him?
It is the worst thing for our soldiers to be doing.
They are women, they are children,
and soldiers have a sense of honor, Sir.
There's plenty of honor in following orders.
Sir, would you like to volunteer for my group?
Enthusiastically. I will.
You will not.
11 million, even half that, executed in small batches,
would be asinine to undertake
for the reasons Dr. Meyer mentioned.
Inefficient use of time, troops, equipment, bullets.
No, as Major Lange will learn,
using gas is much cheaper and less public.
Please.
The T-4 euthanasia program has used injections,
but most effectively,
most effectively,
a carbon monoxide gas.
We began using it on Polish mental patients
in Brandenburg in January, 1940.
Now, an area is constructed that, um,
resembles a shower room or a bath,
and the subjects are brought in naked,
as though for a shower,
and outside, stainless steel tanks
pump in pure carbon monoxide,
which, well, what it does is...
well, I have figures.
In May, this program was extended to Hartheim
and in June, at Sonnenstein.
So, in the first 6 months of 1940,
8,765 persons were gassed.
By the end of 1940, a total of 26,459.
By the end of August last year,
another 35,049.
We terminated this particular program, however,
on September the first.
So, in the end, 70,273
have been gassed by this method.
Now, at this time,
we began the advanced program...
The General Government was not given this information--
Keep going.
Last Summer we ordered the construction
of 20 mobile gassing trucks,
using their redirected exhaust back into the chamber.
3 such trucks have been in use since last month.
At the Chelmno camp, now called Kulmhof...
Already constructed, under our noses.
In each truck you can get in 40 to 60 Jews at a time.
In fact, the more you have in, the faster it works.
And the, um,
carbon monoxide, what it does is...
the bodies come out pink.
The gas turns them pink.
It's a nice touch.
If it is already built, what is this meeting?
Why bother?
The system has shown that it works.
It will work for you. It is settling in.
The method is now defined.
The Jews go in red and come out pink.
Now, that is progress.
I should never mix wine with whiskey.
What's the matter?
I think I will be all right.
Don't make excuses
if you have to leave for a minute.
Sort of a headache.
Hurry.
Eat.
It's fucking ridiculous.
Not at all, Sir.
It could not be the mixing.
The cigar?
Everything all right, Sir?
Could be the cigar.
I could never abide them.
And my father would chew them.
His mouth was always full of evil juice and pulp.
It would fill up and he would have to spit.
I would leave it there, Sir.
Cigarettes, now, they calm me down.
Settle my stomach.
They calm me down.
The problem is,
there are not enough of them in the world.
We should be in there, should we not?
Yes.
Sir?
Is this clean? Yes, Sir.
Let me have a glass of water.
I brought some out, Sir.
I'm not addressing you.
And a bromide tablet of some kind.
You did not like the food?
I did not eat.
Well, I know of no philosophy--
Philosophy--that is your argument
when we have to countenance
the suffocating glut of this parasitic people,
consuming our food,
contaminating our professions,
controlling our currency.
None of that is true. In your philosophy.
Perhaps that is what the chosen people were chosen for.
Oh... No, I apologize.
You take a position, you deserve a response.
It is a cold winter.
The war, in spite of the rallies
and the posters and the radio,
looks like a longer, harder war.
The Jews are in the way.
And how can I, one rather
peripheral figure in your grand plan,
be in your way?
You underestimate your influence.
I do not.
You would be a hard man to bring down.
But certainly... not impossible.
Did I hear you say earlier "be practical"?
Yes.
Well, then this is the moment to be...
practical.
Until such time as Germany can afford your philosophy,
which is what, hound them?
Impoverish them, exploit them?
Imprison them?
Just do not kill them,
and you are God's noblest of men.
I find that truly remarkable.
Sitting again at that table,
I will ask for your agreement to what has been proposed.
And I must answer now?
Oh, you will answer now or you will answer later.
I will not oppose you.
I want more than that.
Oh, of course.
Good.
We understand each other.
May I tell you a story?
Ah, a good one? A true one.
Oh.
Tell me the story.
Well, it was told to me by a friend of mine.
Yes...
Do you realize, Sir, how much thought and effort
has gone into the four-year plan?
Mmm, plenty, I am sure.
Reichsmarshall Goring is very clear.
The necessities of the war
mean that the Jew question has to wait.
There has been a new directive.
New directives says nothing about changing the priorities.
It is implied. Not by me.
Why does this have to be your way or nothing?
I mean the SS. Ah, now you understand.
I do not. You have Stated it.
When I report to the Reichsmarshall...
There has been a new directive.
It has to be as the SS directs.
You cannot sail a ship with two captains.
Well, the Fuhrer is the captain.
And for this, he has given Heydrich the command.
Even Goring has given it.
Resign yourself. Resign?
Yourself to how it is going to be done.
A soldier cannot decide--
Yeah, spare me.
A Communist by definition
has a defect of reason.
The Russian is not a Communist, my friend.
The Russian does not give a damn who runs things.
I have lived amongst them.
The Russian only cares he has a bottle of vodka to suck
and some form of domestic animal life to fuck,
then he will happily sit in shit his whole life.
That is his politics.
I know those people.
That is the distinction.
I absolve the Jews of that.
What did Kritzinger say?
He told me a story. Which was?
He made his point, he'll sleep at night.
Nothing to eat, General?
No. We'll see if there's time when we finish.
We should've had some music. There must be a piano in the building.
Have a string trio.
It would add to the experience.
Yes, I should have. I'm sorry.
Food, wine, brandy, no music?
A little lovely late Beethoven?
I'm sorry.
It would not have been practical.
Yes.
I'm teasing.
I take it that you do not get good food up in Krakow.
If all Berlin eats like you,
no wonder we have shortages.
Was it Mussolini who said,
war reveals man's nobler character?
Are we ready... ah, feeling better?
Thank you, yes.
Something you ate? I'm fine...
...the cigar. The cigar?
Unexpected.
We will forgo cigars.
Oohhh...
That should be no great trial.
Now, where did we stop?
The last remark was by General Freisler,
"The Jews go in red and come out pink.
That is progress."
Yes, the side effect of C.O. Gas.
Now, there is more to say about that.
Studies are moving for something even faster,
other faster and cheaper gases that could be used.
Cyanide is being tested.
Various forms... electrocution too.
Yes, right, there is a research being done
to see whether electrocution can even more,
effectively,
quietly, put an end,
a period to the end of the sentence.
Say, one truckload an hour,
including putting the contents in,
running the engines, removing the contents,
cleaning the inevitable soiling,
on a 24-hour schedule,
1,440 a day times 20 trucks.
20 trucks, that's 28,800 a day.
10,512,000 in one year.
But I cannot imagine you could operate consistently
at that rate, not to mention disposal.
Gas vans are a short term field solution.
We have 3 camps where
permanent gas chambers will be operational.
I'm sorry?
Yes, I was about to mention Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka
before General Hofmann was taken ill.
It was a fine cigar.
Ultimately, the camps will be the primary locations.
Yes, now, last summer Reichsfuhrer Himmler
asked me to visit a camp up in Upper Silesia
called Auschwitz, which is very well isolated
and close to significant rail access.
We are turning that camp into a major center,
solid structures,
and here's where your Jewish labor
comes into play here, Neumann.
The Jews haul the bricks
and they build the buildings themselves.
And when the structures are complete,
we expect to be able to process 2,500 an hour.
Not a day, an hour.
And those numbers look a lot better.
2,500 an hour?
2,500?
At 24 hours a day, that is 60,000.
60,000 each day.
That's 21,900,000 Jews a year,
if ever there were that many.
We are also constructing the means of disposal,
which will obviously depend
upon the process of combustion.
Yes, it will be industrial in nature,
large, commercial gas-fed ovens,
no residue to speak of.
60,000 Jews every day
go up in smoke.
We can achieve that.
Imagine.
Assembly line!
Yes, the clever Americans have shown us that,
but we've put it to the purpose
of a triumphant German vision.
Triumphant German vision.
So, this is my command to you here.
Link arms, your units, your ministries,
apply your intelligence, apply your energies.
The machinery is waiting.
Feed it.
Get them on the trains.
Keep the trains rolling
and history will honor us
for having the will and the vision
to advance the human race to greater purity
in a space of time so short
Charles Darwin would be astonished.
Now, I want to bring this meeting to a close.
The one matter we have had to postpone
is the point at which
mixed becomes wholly German or wholly Jew.
That line will be drawn very quickly.
I am not trying to rewrite your law,
but I am invoking Fuhrer's princip.
His word is above all written law.
So, do we have any disputes left to face here,
either with my authority or with what we have agreed?
General?
Let us astonish Charles Darwin.
I second the motion.
It is our most important war.
Sir?
We are just discussing the inevitable
and trying to bring it all about
in the most practical way under one command.
I have no dispute with that.
I understand the realities.
With the understanding--
And indeed,
count on my support.
With the understanding that consideration
will be given to my proposal,
yes, sure, proceed.
I defer to the SS.
If you are to do it, then force-feed it,
speed it along.
Our situation, such as in Warsaw,
is difficult, edging towards disastrous.
Thank you.
Oh, yes, what can I say?
My enthusiasm is boundless.
Obviously.
Sorry?
I trust my enthusiasm is clear, is apparent, yes.
Neumann?
I would like to know that adequate supplies of labor
will still be available--
On a case-by-case basis. Major Lange?
Yes.
I would like to urge that speed
that Dr. Meyer asked of you.
The Poles are not as disciplined a population as we Germans.
And I will report the will of the group to the Governor General.
He will understand that I'm relieving him of a burden.
Colonel?
I thoroughly approve and am anxious to start.
I look forward to working with your office
and yours, Colonel.
The sooner the better.
The note taking, General.
Yes, I think we can now dispense with him.
Many of you have been taking notes
during this conference.
I give you the rest of the day to memorize them.
They are to be burned.
Colonel Eichmann will prepare
a discreet transcript of this meeting.
You will each receive a copy.
It may be shown to superiors,
but to no one at a lower level.
All comments from above are to be sent
in the most privileged way
to me through Colonel Eichmann.
Good.
We have accomplished something.
I thank all of you gentlemen.
Heil Hitler.
Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!
There is plenty of food left for those of you, please.
I have a few minutes. Come.
Leave him alone.
His Fuhrer lied to him. I think he got the message.
General... just a word.
In here.
Stop it... stop it!
You!
What are you doing? You're in uniform!
I'm sorry, Sir. It just seemed to happen.
Not in uniform.
Nothing ever just happens.
If you prefer,
we can send you to the Russian front.
Now, clean off these cars!
Are you leaving tonight?
Yes.
What, not another night in Berlin?
You have nothing to do, Sir. I have.
I must say, you surprised me at the end, Dr. Stuckart.
Not my intention.
Leave the paper tapes with me.
Tomorrow morning we'll begin
the transcription in my office,
but leave the tapes with me now.
You want all the tapes, Sir?
Yes, all of them.
Dr. Stuckart's car!
Are you unwell?
Good night, Dr. Stuckart.
Well, my car.
General Hofmann's car!
Doctor.
It is night in Moscow already.
Soon it will be dark here.
Do you think we will ever see
the dawn in our lifetime?
Come spring, we'll be on the move again.
Keep your spirits up, doctor.
The Governor General has specifically been told
that we would be the first area,
the first to have our ghettos emptied,
the Jews evacuated. The possible epidemic--
I know the conditions. You need not repeat them.
But as to the promise, you are wrong.
The first to be cleansed is Germany.
Then you, Germany first.
The bureaucratic struggles--
I do not think you understand this is my operation.
No bureaucracy and no bureaucrat with his nose in the rule book
and his hand on his cock will slow it down.
We will be moving Jews in days, not weeks.
You can start writing up your train schedules.
Ah, Schubert's Quintet in C Major.
The adagio will tear your heart out.
Tell the Governor General to expect my call.
Have we helped your problem?
Yes, I hope so.
Good, then. You, Sir?
I am sure trains will be available.
Anything else?
You have been very patient.
Don't count on it.
Have a good ride to Krakow.
Thank you.
Well done, Colonel. Fine meeting.
Thank you.
Thank you, as well.
I admire your gift for organization.
The meeting was very economical.
Thank you.
Now I am hungry.
Could it happen, do either of you think,
that we would have that final solution?
That a year from now
there wouldn't be a Jew left on the continent?
That we control? Why not?
Do you drink, Eichmann?
Yes, Sir. Are you ever drunk?
From time to time.
Well, then,
take a fucking drink.
Well, I am on duty, Sir.
Well then, it's an order.
Thank you, Sir.
And tell us again about the pink bodies.
Oh, well, Sir, I'd rather not.
The sounds, the screams.
He will faint again.
I did not faint.
I had a physical symptom.
What was the story you were going to tell me?
The story? Kritzinger.
Yes, he told me a story about a man
he'd known all his life.
A boyhood friend.
This man hated his father, loved his mother fiercely.
The mother was devoted to him,
but the father used to beat him,
demeaned him, disinherited him.
Anyway, this friend grew to manhood
and he was still in his 30s
when the mother died.
This mother, who had nurtured and protected him.
She died.
The man stood as they lowered her casket and
tried to cry,
but no tears came.
The man's father lived to a very extended old age.
Withered away and died when the son was in his 50s, I think,
and at the father's funeral,
much to his son's surprise,
he could not control his tears.
He was wailing, sobbing.
He was apparently inconsolable.
Lost, even.
That was the story Kritzinger told me.
I don't understand.
No?
The man had been driven his whole life
by hatred of his father.
When the mother died, that was a loss.
When the father died,
when the hate had lost its object,
then the man's life was empty.
Over.
Interesting.
That was Kritzinger's warning.
What?
That we should not hate the Israelites?
No, that it should not so fill our lives
that when they are gone,
we have nothing left to live for.
So says the story.
I will not miss them.
Time.
You're going to take me up
in that plane of yours sometime.
Yes, we should do that.
Not right after you have eaten.
Friday.
Everything will be prepared.
One working copy edited by me for your approval.
30 copies numbered,
no other records, I guarantee.
Good.
You certainly know how to throw a party.
Thank you.
Shalom.
Does it tear your heart out?
Beautiful, Sir.
I have never understood the passion
for Schubert's sentimental Viennese shit.
Colonel Eichmann carefully edited
the stenographic record of the conference.
Copies were distributed to the participants
to be read and then destroyed.
General Heydrich flew back to his headquarters
in Czechoslovakia,
where in a few terrible weeks,
he had earned the nickname "The Butcher of Prague."
In the spring,
two Czech patriots trained to assassinate him
and dropped from a British bomber,
succeeded in wounding him.
In reprisal, thousands of Czechs
were rounded up and shot.
Heydrich's wounds grew infected,
he fell into a coma, and died.
Eichmann, as Heydrich's deputy for Jewish affairs,
was left to finish what they had begun at Wannsee.
He considered it a matter of honor.