Today in WWII History
World War II History for January 20
20 JAN 1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.
In July 1941, Herman Goering, writing under instructions from Hitler, had ordered Reinhard Heydrich, SS general and Heinrich Himmler’s number-two man, to submit “as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative, material, and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question.”
Heydrich met with Adolf Eichmann, chief of the Central Office of Jewish Emigration, and 15 other officials from various Nazi ministries and organizations at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin. The agenda was simple and focused: to devise a plan that would render a “final solution to the Jewish question” in Europe. Various gruesome proposals were discussed, including mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar. Heydrich proposed simply transporting Jews from every corner Europe to concentration camps in Poland and working them to death. Objections to this plan included the belief that this was simply too time-consuming. What about the strong ones who took longer to die? What about the millions of Jews who were already in Poland? Although the word “extermination” was never uttered during the meeting, the implication was clear: anyone who survived the egregious conditions of a work camp would be “treated accordingly.”
Months later, the “gas vans” in Chelmno, Poland, which were killing 1,000 people a day, proved to be the “solution” they were looking for–the most efficient means of killing large groups of people at one time.
The minutes of this conference were kept with meticulous care, which later provided key evidence during the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
20 JAN 1944 - The British RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
20 JAN 1945 - US XXI Corps and French first Army forces launched attacks in southern Alsace to clear the Colmar pocket and the west bank of the Rhine.
20 JAN 1945 – East Prussia was almost encircled by Red Army forces advancing from the south and east. Tilst (Sovetsk) fell.
20 JAN 1945 – Trapped German troops in Budapest attempted to break out of the city toward the Danube.
20 JAN 1945 – The first small US convoy reached Kunming, China, over the Burma Road and a hastily repaired branch route. It took 16 days to drive from Myitkyina in Burma.
20 JAN 1945 – Roosevelt was inaugurated for a fourth term as US president.
“The Wannsee Conference,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6684 (accessed Jan 20, 2009).
Goralski, Robert. World War II Almanac 1931-1945: A Political and Military Record. New York, NY: Perigee Books, 1981.
1942, 1944, 1945, Wannsee, Jews, Heydrich, SS, Himmler, Burma, Roosevelt, President, Inauguration, China, Prussia, Budapest
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