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World War II Remembered: The Wannsee Protocol
By Jennifer King and Timothy Rollins
January 18, 2002

On January 20th, 1942, SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of Security Police, called together officials from the SS, the Nazi party and state ministries in order to discuss the "Final Solution" to Europe's Jewish "problem". This conference was held at at Heydrich's villa, Wannsee.

The decision to deport European Jewry to the East where they would henceforth be massacred had already been made. In fact, Jews in Germany and the occupied countries were already living under a virtual reign of terror. Adolph Hitler had formulated a successful strategy which combined fervent German nationalism with Germany's shame at their defeat in the First World War. The Versailles Treaty, in which France and England conspired for revenge over Germany, was an abject humiliation. The treaty helped to spawn spiraling inflation, and set the ground for the defeat of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Adolph Hitler, who brilliantly made use of new technology to propagandize himself and his cause.

Hitler's animus at the Jews stemmed from a combination of that early 21st century phenomenon, eugenics, (also a fond topic for Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood) and an anti-capitalist bent. Propagandists in our own age have fondly labelled Hitler and fascism as being "right wing", but the government he set up was a socialist one. Hitler also played upon the Germans fear of Communism, the giant Russian bear being virtually at their doorstep.

Anti-Semitism had a long legacy in Europe, where Jews were scattered in the Diaspora after being tossed out of Jerusalum by the Romans. In 1923, a man named Rosenberg warned of the dire "World Jewish Conspiracy", a tale which is still circulated in the Arab streets and madrassahs. In 1923 Julius Streicher founded the anti-Semitic weekly newsmagazine, Der Sturmer, which by 1940 had a circulation of 600,000.

On May 10, 1933, a massive book burning was held. Voltaire, Freud, Heine, Heinrich, Einstein and Mann were fried, lest the public get ahold of any of their dangerous ideas. On March 12th, 1938, claiming that the crowded Germans needed more Lebensraum, or living room, Germany invaded Austria. On November 9th of that same year, Kristallnacht saw the destruction of 267 synagogues, 7,600 stores and 91 people. Jews by this time were not permitted to go to public parks or events, keep pets, radios or jewelry and had a curfew of 8:00pm.

In 1939, the Gestapo joined forces with the SS in order to form the Reich Security Main Office. On March 15th, the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain ("Peace in our Time") set the stage for his own ignominious defeat. The weary European powers finally balked when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, and declared war on Germany on September 3rd. Auschwitz was opened on April 30th of 1940, and the Zyklon-B gas was first used (previously, the Germans had either shot or used carbon monoxide on their hapless captives) in 1941. Hitler also violated his anti-aggression pact with Stalin, and invaded the USSR on June 22nd, 1941. This instituted a particularly violent era for Russian Jews. So-called "Special Units" were detached to the region with the sole purpose of cleansing the region of Jews.

On September 29/30th, 1941, 33,771 Jews from Kiev were slaughtered at Babi Yar. Men, women and children (in one instance 34,464 kids alone) were simply lined up and shot.

It is difficult for us to believe that so-called civilized and educated men would be able to shoot to death 34,464 children, who were no doubt screaming and crying in abject terror.

Man's inhumanity towards his fellow man has been proved many times over the years, but the sheer brutality of the Nazi troops still leaves one aghast. How does the common man shoot children, and justify it to himself? It can only happen when, as with the Nazis, children are taught from a young age that their adversaries are un-human monsters.

In the madrassahs and mosques of the Middle East, the Islamofascists are teaching that to their children this very day. Some of them are teaching that hatred of Americans and Israelis in mosques right here on our own shores.

The savage history of World War II should show us just how dangerous that is. ***