The Organigram

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The photos on this organigram show the 15 participants at the meeting at Wannsee.  All of them were among the Third Reich’s functionary elite. These men helped to organise the mass murders across Europe. Some months before, Hitler had authorised the mass murders which had already taken place at many locations. But neither Hitler nor any of the other top-ranking Nazi leaders were present at the meeting in Wannsee on 20 January 1942.

Most likely, the meeting took place here in this room. The only question addressed was ‘how’ to organise the mass murders – in other words, what was the most efficient way to murder millions of people. Reinhard Heydrich, on the left-hand side of the organigram, asserted his claim to head the organisation and his responsibility for the operation. Heydrich’s leadership role derived from an order issued by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring instructing him to prepare everything necessary for a ‘total solution of the Jewish question’. The previous summer, Heydrich had composed a written note to that effect himself and asked Göring to sign it.

Originally, Heydrich and his staff had apparently anticipated some resistance from those attending the meeting, especially when it came to Heydrich’s intended leadership role. After all, the SS and police organisation were constantly wrangling over competencies with other authorities represented at the meeting over the extent of their powers – for example, with other departments in the Ministry of the Interior or the civil administration of the occupied eastern territories. The others attending the meeting also took part in the policy of murder. Their main concern was to safeguard the interests of their own institutions and ensure there was a clear legal definition of who was to be deported.