The Wannsee Conference in the Development of the 'final Solution'
The Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942 did not launch the genocide of European Jewry - it had been under way in the Soviet territories and the Balkans since summer 1941. The annihilation of the Jews was a central aim of the Nazi regime and is not to be regarded as a mere side-effect of historical developments in this period. In fact, it began in 1939 with the implementation of "Jewish reservation" projects, and it accelerated in 1941-42. The Wannsee Conference coincided with the USA's entry into the war and the Soviet counter-offensive from Moscow, two events which put an end to German hopes for a quick victory. Thus, Wannsee shifted the Final Solution from the postwar plan to wartime, and also decided on the method - annihilation through work, which had been tried before 1942 as well as outlined in a pan-European deportation program. The order for the total annihilation of all Jews was issued only in May 1942; the planned "final solution" in the form of the systematic annihilation of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement and in the Soviet territories reached its full scope in the summer of 1942.