Was the Impact of the Wannsee Conference Significant to the Increase of Anti-Semitism from 1942-1945?

Called together by Reinhard Heydrich on January of 1942 in Berlin, the Wannsee Conference was the location of where the “Final Solution” was arranged and discussed among Government leaders and head Nazi officials. Addressed will be the question if the impact of the Wannsee Conference was significant to the increase of anti-Semitism from 1942-1945. Both primary and secondary sources will be used to investigate a comparison of anti-Semitic methods before and after the conference, as well as what had occurred during the conference, and the response of the non-Jewish population to the proposal from the conference. Primary sources that will be used include speeches and documents of that time. Websites such as House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site will be used in this investigation, as well as books by John Weiss and Roberto Finzi, which will be evaluated for their origins, purposes, values, and limits.

Part B: Summary of Facts

There were many different anti-Semitic methods and sources in Europe before and after the Wannsee conference.

· The Catholic Church was one of the largest sources of anti-Semitism; they considered the Jews to be evil and believed Judaism was not a valid religion.

· The commercial well being of Jews: many accused Jews of manipulating and exploiting people in order to make money.

· Many aristocrats discriminated against Jews and blamed them for everything that ever went wrong, just to gain popularity amongst the people.

· Anthropology: People believed that each ethnic group was born with different physical characteristics and intellectual capacities. Jews were believed to have inherited the bad traits.

· Ethnic nationalism was a source of anti-Semitism in Central and Eastern Europe; no one was tolerant of other ethnic groups because they thought their own was the best.

· From 1882 through 1944, the number of riots and protests against Jews increased in Austria.

· Anti-Semitic hate writing in...