When fifteen officials sat down at Wannsee, Chełmno had been gassing for six weeks. Not one of them objected.

The Reich Marshal has appointed Heydrich “delegate for the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe”. The Reichsführer-SS holds “the official central handling … without regard to geographic borders”. The meeting is called for “clarifying fundamental questions”.

537,000 Jews “sent out of the country” by 31 October 1941 — 360,000 from Germany, 147,000 from Austria, 30,000 from the Protectorate. Foreign Jewish organisations had supplied around $9,500,000 towards it. Emigration is now prohibited.

“Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved.” Thirty-three lines in two groups — A under German control, B allied, neutral or at war. England 330,000. Ireland 4,000. Switzerland 18,000. Sweden 8,000. Spain 6,000. Portugal 3,000.

What followedThe table's own arithmetic comes to 11,292,300, of which 6,755,800 lay outside German reach. About six million Jews were murdered. The neutrals on the list were never reached.

Jews “allocated for appropriate labor in the East”, in “large work columns … in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes”. The “possible final remnant … will have to be treated accordingly”.

What followedBełżec opened in March 1942, Sobibór in April, Treblinka in July; Birkenau began as a killing centre in March. About 2.7 million people were murdered in the killing centres.

“Europe will be combed through from west to east.” Germany and the Protectorate first, “due to the housing problem”. The evacuated to go first to “so-called transit ghettos”.

Jews over 65 not to be evacuated but sent to “an old-age ghetto — Theresienstadt is being considered”; likewise severely wounded veterans and holders of the Iron Cross First Class. “With this expedient solution, in one fell swoop many interventions will be prevented.”

What followedFrom June 1942 about 58,000 German and Austrian Jews were sent to Theresienstadt, the elderly and the decorated veterans among them. Around 88,000 people were deported onward from it; about 3,500 of those survived. Some 34,000 died in the ghetto itself.

Romania “has appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs”; for Hungary “it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government”. Luther warns that the Scandinavian states will be difficult and advises deferring them. Hofmann offers to attach a race expert to the police attaché in Budapest.

Hofmann: sterilisation “will have to be widely used”. Stuckart calls the six marriage cases unworkable — “endless administrative work” — and proposes forced sterilisation instead, with the law simply declaring that mixed marriages “have been dissolved”.

Jews in industries vital to the war effort, where no replacement is available, “cannot be evacuated”. Heydrich answers that they would not be, under the rules he has already approved.

Bühler “would welcome it if the final solution … could be begun in the General Government”, where transport is not a problem. Of “approximately 2 1/2 million Jews concerned, the majority is unfit for work”. He “had only one request, to solve the Jewish question in this area as quickly as possible”. Meyer agrees that preparatory work should start at once, “alarming the populace must be avoided”.

What followedHe got what he asked for. About 1.7 million people were murdered in the three Aktion Reinhard camps in the General Government; 1.32 million of them in roughly a hundred days from August 1942.