GERMANY ~ House of the Wannsee Conference - Berlin ~

... At first site it looks a charming, neo-Baroque villa in a pretty lake-side outer district of Berlin...  inside, the rooms are well-lit and elegant, giving no hint of the events which happened here... unfortunately, before WWII, the SS bought it... and it became the site of one of the most evil meetings in human history and the planning of the darkest chapter of history... its in a horrible way connected to the Holocaust... here it is where the most sinister, murderous and fanatic decision to eliminate the Jewish people was taken... in 1942, leading figures in the Nazi government and SS meet here to discuss their so-called Final Solution to the Jewish Question... the "obvious" solution of sufficient "finality" was the unspeakable … physical annihilation... the exhibition in the House of the Wannsee Conference gives an insight into this criminal meeting, and how the plan was put into practice... "Conferenc"' is actually too big a word, it was more a "business meeting", with just 15 participants, and it only lasted about an hour and a half... the basic decision had already been taken at a higher level, namely by Hitler himself, and his closest ally in this matter, Heinrich Himmler... the museum details the genocide perpetrated on the European Jews through the use of original documents and audiovisual presentations... there are 15 rooms... the last room contains some sobering thoughts by some survivors of the death camps as well as one from the daughter of Himmler... to walk in the footsteps of people that have generated this kind of hatred and with such a cold and calculating methods is really unbelievable... maybe a lot to read but it is still a message to the world, NEVER AGAIN!!! with nice "World Post Day" postmark... Thanks Dustin!  ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)

The villa is located in the furthest south-western corner of Berlin right on the western shores of the eponymous Wannsee lake. 

In 1914, pharmaceutical manufacturer Ernst Marlier builds his new luxury villa, and a few years later anti-Republican and right wing industrialist Friedrich Minoux takes ownership of it. He sells the villa to an SS foundation in 1941 for use as a guest house.

The following year, National Socialists are already planning the Wannsee Conference. After the Second World War, the villa is handed over to the political party SPD who establish an educational centre called the August-Bebel-Institute. 

It serves as a school between 1952 and 1982. In 1982, Richard von Weizsäcker, Berlin's mayor, designates the house a memorial, and since 1992, on the 50th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, it became an official museum and educational centre.

 

Stamp:

Treasures of Philately - Bordeaux Cover 

(Issued 02-09-2021)