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Authors: Thomas R. Flagel
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the military and industrial potential of the United States and overestimated Japan’s chances of keeping American forces in the Pacific, he was not eager to invite yet another enemy into the fray. For years he had privately stated his desire to keep the United States out of the war. His ideal scenario involved Japan attacking the Soviet Union, with the Americans staying neutral. Yet instead of having a two-front war against Stalin, Hitler unilaterally created one against himself.
In his speech to the Reichstag announcing Germany’s declaration of war on the United States, Hitler stated, “A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator.”
6. WANNSEE CONFERENCE (JANUARY 20, 1942)
Nazi persecution of the Jews had not been systematic up to 1942. Officials initially expelled Jews from homes, businesses, and cities in an attempt to make areas “Jew free.” Emigration was also encouraged. By 1940, nearly half of Germany’s 500,000 Jews had left for Britain, the United States, Palestine, and elsewhere.
When the Reich overran areas with large “non-Aryan” populations, the solution was to contain the Jews in ghettos, often denying them food. Privation began to kill hundreds, then thousands, but the method was imprecise and slow. In the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans initiated use of Einsatzgruppen, or “Special Groups,” roaming death squads that liquidated Jews by mass shootings. By the end of 1941, at least one million Jews had died, yet no systematic plan for annihilation was yet in place.
Then Adolf Eichmann, head of Germany’s Race and Resettlement Office, called an assembly of fifteen administrators to the wealthy Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Their task was to coordinate a “final solution” to the Jewish problem.
In less than two hours, the officials outlined a new program, whereby Europe’s Jews would be collected and transported to special sites in the east, under the pretense that they were to be used as forced labor. Meeting minutes contained no references to killing, but the “laborers” were to include infants and the elderly. Destination points were a select few concentration camps, which were at that moment being fitted with gas chambers. 15
Wannsee was the first instance where genocide became official Nazi policy. Documentation from the conference stands as the most damning evidence to date that the Holocaust had been directed by the highest levels of the Third Reich. By all indications, the procedure was effectively implemented. Half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust died in a handful of death camps. 16
Among the potential “labor pools” cited in the Wannsee briefing minutes was Great Britain, with an estimated 330,000 Jews.
7. “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”: THE CASABLANCA CONFERENCE (JANUARY 14–24, 1943)
On the last day of a long summit, Roosevelt and Churchill were holding a press conference in sunny Casablanca. Stalin declined to attend the summit, wanting instead to monitor events at S TALINGRAD . The president and prime minister were reviewing the high-level issues of their meetings, such as the need for a unified French resistance. A photo op captured the proud but politically dim Gen. Henri Giraud (whom Churchill and Roosevelt tolerated) shaking the hand of ego-maniacal Gen. Charles de Gaulle (whom they loathed), suggesting that the French problem had been solved. It hadn’t.
The rest of the conference had gone generally well. The United States agreed to join Britain in a combined bomber offensive on German targets and affirmed its “Germany First” commitment. The British tacitly agreed to a cross-channel attack sometime in 1944.
As the press conference was about to conclude, Roosevelt uttered a phrase that took Churchill and journalists by surprise. He began to speak of Civil War icon Ulysses S. Grant and his famous nickname, “and the next thing I knew,” Roosevelt later recalled, “I had said it.” 17
Unconditional surrender. No
In his speech to the Reichstag announcing Germany’s declaration of war on the United States, Hitler stated, “A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator.”
6. WANNSEE CONFERENCE (JANUARY 20, 1942)
Nazi persecution of the Jews had not been systematic up to 1942. Officials initially expelled Jews from homes, businesses, and cities in an attempt to make areas “Jew free.” Emigration was also encouraged. By 1940, nearly half of Germany’s 500,000 Jews had left for Britain, the United States, Palestine, and elsewhere.
When the Reich overran areas with large “non-Aryan” populations, the solution was to contain the Jews in ghettos, often denying them food. Privation began to kill hundreds, then thousands, but the method was imprecise and slow. In the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans initiated use of Einsatzgruppen, or “Special Groups,” roaming death squads that liquidated Jews by mass shootings. By the end of 1941, at least one million Jews had died, yet no systematic plan for annihilation was yet in place.
Then Adolf Eichmann, head of Germany’s Race and Resettlement Office, called an assembly of fifteen administrators to the wealthy Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Their task was to coordinate a “final solution” to the Jewish problem.
In less than two hours, the officials outlined a new program, whereby Europe’s Jews would be collected and transported to special sites in the east, under the pretense that they were to be used as forced labor. Meeting minutes contained no references to killing, but the “laborers” were to include infants and the elderly. Destination points were a select few concentration camps, which were at that moment being fitted with gas chambers. 15
Wannsee was the first instance where genocide became official Nazi policy. Documentation from the conference stands as the most damning evidence to date that the Holocaust had been directed by the highest levels of the Third Reich. By all indications, the procedure was effectively implemented. Half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust died in a handful of death camps. 16
Among the potential “labor pools” cited in the Wannsee briefing minutes was Great Britain, with an estimated 330,000 Jews.
7. “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”: THE CASABLANCA CONFERENCE (JANUARY 14–24, 1943)
On the last day of a long summit, Roosevelt and Churchill were holding a press conference in sunny Casablanca. Stalin declined to attend the summit, wanting instead to monitor events at S TALINGRAD . The president and prime minister were reviewing the high-level issues of their meetings, such as the need for a unified French resistance. A photo op captured the proud but politically dim Gen. Henri Giraud (whom Churchill and Roosevelt tolerated) shaking the hand of ego-maniacal Gen. Charles de Gaulle (whom they loathed), suggesting that the French problem had been solved. It hadn’t.
The rest of the conference had gone generally well. The United States agreed to join Britain in a combined bomber offensive on German targets and affirmed its “Germany First” commitment. The British tacitly agreed to a cross-channel attack sometime in 1944.
As the press conference was about to conclude, Roosevelt uttered a phrase that took Churchill and journalists by surprise. He began to speak of Civil War icon Ulysses S. Grant and his famous nickname, “and the next thing I knew,” Roosevelt later recalled, “I had said it.” 17
Unconditional surrender. No
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