On 20 January 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazis gathered in a villa on the Wannsee, a large lake in a suburb of Berlin. At this conference, they discussed the planned murder of eleven million European Jews.
For a while, the Nazis had thought that they could force the Jews to emigrate to other countries, but this was no longer an option because of the war. Instead, the Jews were to be 'evacuated' to the east. A large proportion was expected to fall away due to 'natural reduction'. The remaining Jews would receive 'appropriate treatment'.
The participants in the conference hid their real intentions behind official language. These words come from the minutes of the conference, which were preserved. What they say, is that the Nazis were organising a genocide. ‘Evacuation' equalled deportation to concentration and extermination camps, and the 'appropriate treatment' meant 'murder'.
Hitler had already decided that all European Jews must be murdered. From July 1941 onwards, German special units (Einsatzgruppen) had been active in the Soviet Union to kill Jews. And since the spring of 1941, there had been executions in occupied Yugoslavia. By early 1942, the Nazis had already murdered more than a million Jews.