The conference by Matti Geschonneck, released this week, is not the first film dealing with the Wannsee conference. I knew the one that Heinz Schirk made in 1984, but there was also Conspiracy by Frank Pierson, in 2001, with Kenneth Branagh. There may be others, not to mention the countless films evoking more or less lengthily the historic meeting which took place on January 20, 1942 in the sumptuous Villa Marlier that SS General Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s right-hand man, occupied on the shores of Lake Wannsee, three kilometers from Berlin. That day, fifteen senior Nazi regime officials met to develop the “final solution”. Hitler’s project to exterminate the Jews of Europe was already underway, but it had to be organized in an efficient way, that is to say quickly, economically, and discreetly.
The 15 petty leaders of the regime, secretaries and under-secretaries of state, officers and non-commissioned officers, chiefs and sub-chiefs of offices Disgust and frightening the Gestapo or units in charge of Jewish affairs (Adolf Eichmann), have discussed for two hours. Approximately the duration of the film, which reconstructs this moment when the fantasy of the final solution rubs shoulders with its practical reality. Exterminating 11 million people poses a number of technical problems. And raises objections which, though never moral, are nonetheless crucial. This is a time when ethics give way to logistics.
As for the two previous films on the subject, Matti Geschonneck’s screenwriters based themselves on the minutes written by Eichmann and of which only one copy remains of the 30 copies distributed at the time. This unique copy was found in the archives of Martin Luther, who participated in the Wannsee conference as a representative of Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Martin Luther will attempt two years later to assassinate Ribbentrop. Arrested, condemned, he will be sent to the camp of Sachsenhausen from where he will be released by the Russians, before dying of a heart attack. The other participants in this sinister brainstorming committed suicide, were executed, assassinated or killed in the Allied bombardments.
Five escaped denazification and died in their beds, without speaking or leaving anything that could be used to reenact the conference. This meager documentation makes these three films inevitably look alike: unity of time, place, characters. It is therefore their differences, sometimes minute, that will interest the cinephile who would dream of a comparative study showing how, on each of these dates (1984, 2001 and 2023), they are imbued with the political climate and aesthetic values of their respective era. .
The human race loves to solve problems
In 1984, at Heinz Schirk, these gentlemen under-secretaries are mocking, greedy, drinkers, openly satisfied with themselves and their power, we find them in Matti Geschonneck’s film more upset, at times overwhelmed by the enormity of the organization of the massacre, for some even frightened by its cost: 11 million Jews, these are as many bullets, bodies to transport, pits to dig… a sum of energy and material which will be lacking on the Eastern front which has just opened up.
But the human race loves solving problems. And it is with relief that our Nazi dignitaries welcome the good news brought by Reinhard Heydrich: Zyklon B. A relief immediately tempered by a new annoyance: the agony lasts fifteen minutes, which will represent a slowing down of the pace. This Wannsee conference, of which a new film should be made every ten years, inspires as much disgust towards bureaucracy as dread at the mechanics of obedience.