Movies - Conspiracy

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	Movies - Conspiracy

Conspiracy is a made-for-TV BBC/HBO motion picture which dramatizes the events that occurred during the Wannsee Conference of 1942. The film delves into the psychology of German officials involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" during WWII.

The movie starred an ensemble cast including Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich, Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann, and Colin Firth as Wilhelm Stuckart. It was written by Loring Mandel.

Plot

A secret meeting is held in order to determine the method by which the German government is to execute Adolf Hitler's policy - that the German sphere of influence should be free of Jews, including those in the occupied terrorities of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and France. As the film opens, various officials from different German agencies arrive and mingle at a beautiful manor house in Wannsee, where Colonel Adolf Eichmann, SS Officer for Jewish Affairs, has meticulously planned the meeting. Among those present:

Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer representing the Interior Ministry and co-author of the Nuremberg laws
Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger, deputy head of the Reich Chancellery
Gerhard Klopfer, a lawyer from the Nazi Party Chancellery
Martin Luther, Foreign Ministry liaison to the SS

Last to arrive is SS General Reinhard Heydrich, who begins by explaining the purpose of the meeting.

It is quickly established by those present that the there is a significant "Jewish problem", in that the Jews of Europe cannot be efficiently contained, nor can they be forced onto other countries. Dr Kritzinger interrupts at several points to opine that the meeting is pointless, given that the Jewish question had previously been settled, but Heydrich promises to revisit his concerns. A discussion follows of the possibilities of sterilisation, and of the exemptions for mixed race Jews who have one or more non-Jewish grandparents. At this point, Stuckart loses his temper and insists that a sturdy legal framework is paramount, and that ad hoc application of standards will lead to administrative chaos. He also chides Klopfer for his simplistic portrayal of Jews as evil sub-humans, simultaneously painting his own picture of Jews as clever, manipulative and untrustworthy. Speculation grows at the meeting that Stuckart may be a Jewish sympathiser.

Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and takes Stuckart aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness, implying that others in the SS will take an unwanted interest in his actions. When the meeting reconvenes, Heydrich steers the discussion in the direction of wholesale elimination using gas chambers. This causes consternation among many of the attendees, notably Kritzinger, who objects that Hitler had given him personal guarantees that extermination of the Jews was not being considered, and representatives of the Polish administration, who are shocked to discover that the SS have been building camps and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under their noses and in secret.

By this time it has become clear to everyone at the meeting that they have been called together not to discuss the problem but to be given orders by the SS, who are intent on wresting control of the operation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. The meeting breaks again as one of the officials is suddenly taken ill, supposedly due to a cigar.

This time it is Dr Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich, who warns that Kritzinger is influential but not invulnerable. Kritzinger realises that Heydrich wants not only consent but active support, and that any hopes he had of assuring livable conditions for the Jewish population are unrealistic. In return, he tells a Heydrich a cautionary tale about a man consumed by hatred for his father, so much so that he is sorry to see his father die, for his life seems empty without the antipathy that drove him.

Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting, giving clear directives that the SS are to be obeyed in all matters relating to the elimination of the Jews. He also asks for explicit assent and support from each official, one by one. After giving careful instructions on the secrecy of the minutes and notes of the meeting, they are adjourned and begin to depart.

As the servants at the manor tidy away the remains of the meeting, and the officials depart, a brief account of the fate of each one is given.

Themes

While the majority of the content of the film is historical and taken from the few surviving records of the meeting, all other conversation is purely speculative. While the tragedy of the Holocaust has been portrayed in many forms such as Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List
, Conspiracy focuses much more closely on the dehumanisation of the Jews by the perpetrators and on the prevalent cultural attitudes that allowed the Nazis to make the leap from persecution to genocide.

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