House of the Wannsee Conference

Visits, Seminar and Study Days
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Educational Opportunities

This booklet provides information about the permanent exhibition, the library and, in considerable detail, about the educational work of the House of the Wannsee Conference. In particular, it is addressed to teachers, instructors and staff members of institutions involved in adult education. The booklet gives specific and detailed information about the pedagogical facilities available that are of special interest to them.

The ideological and political preparation, the systematic planning and execution of mass murder that was carried out relentlessly and with technical-bureaucratic perfection as an administrative process must be investigated with these questions in mind.
The Memorial and Educational Site offers one day seminars and seminars running for several days to adults who continue with their professional education or are interested in history and politics, and to instructors and teachers. In vocationally oriented seminars, men and women from various branches of the civil service such as the judiciary, municipal administration, the tax office, health and social services, the military and the police, and also individuals associated with institutions of research and culture, investigate how members of their own vocational groups participated, by division of labour, in the preparation and execution of the ”Final Solution“. Furthermore, the alternative behaviour of the few who refused to co-operate and who tried to help those being persecuted can be discussed by way of example. For theses studies they use docu­ments and periodicals dating from the National Socialist period.

Although today we live under very different political circumstances in a constitutional democratic state, the history of the National Socialist crimes raises a number of politically relevant questions: which structures, which ways of thinking, speaking and behaving are responsible for denying equal rights to other people, and for treating them like objects? What prompts people to look away in the face of discrimination and violence, or to remain indifferent to the suffering of others? Conversely, where does the ability to oppose such tendencies originate, and how can it be encouraged?
The focus and working procedures of the seminars are determined by the level of knowledge, interests and requirements of the participants. The presupposition is that dealing with history in the Memorial Site should be an active process. The most important methods are discussion, group work, autonomous research using documents and auto­biographical testimonies, and also talks with survivors and consultation with experts in the field.
Seminar days are usually conducted in cooperation with partners such as unions, professional associations and other sponsors of educational activities. Qualified educational staff members of the House of the Wannsee Conference organise educational events with their respective partners, prepare public lectures and working material, act as moderators during group discussions and offer assistance to those working with documents. Moreover, the team provides advice and assistance to groups in relation to their conception and organisation of educational events; the latter may also include various other locations in Berlin and the surrounding area.

last update: August 8th, 2001