Conspiracy (2001) vs. The Wannsee Conference (1984)

 

 

I'm sorry I am a day late on this.  The event was on Jan. 20, 1942.

                There have been two movies about the Wannsee Conference.  This was a meeting of Nazi officials to discuss the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem”.  It took place in a suburb of Berlin on Jan. 20, 1942.  Both screenplays were based on a surviving summary of the conference.  Details about the conversations came from interviews with Adolf Eichmann when he was in Israeli captivity.  Both films used quotes from memos and speeches by Nazi officials. 

                “Conspiracy” was made by HBO. It was directed by Frank Pierson.  It stars Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich. He won an Emmy for acting.  Screenwriter Loring Mandel also won an Emmy.  It was nominated for Outstanding TV Movie and Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth were nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  Tucci won a Golden Globe.  He is the only American in the movie.  The house where the conference took place was used for exterior shots, but the inside of the house was replicated on a sound stage. 

                The movie starts with shots of servants preparing the house (which had been confiscated from a Jewish family) as though its Downton Abbey and the King is coming.  Fifteen government officials arrive and wait for the grand entrance of Heydrich.  They are all Nazis and by the time introductions are over, you will have heard “Heil, Hitler” 35 times.  Heydrich was director of the Reich Security Home Office.  He is there to get advice from them, but he is very much in charge and steers the suggestions to what he wants.  Around the table is an assortment of bureaucrats, toadies, psychopaths, and buffoons.  There is a “storage problem” when it comes to Jewish people.  Not everyone is on board with an extreme solution.  Some of the bureaucrats speak against it, risking Heydrich’s steely glare.  Dr. Kirtzinger (David Threlfell) insists that Hitler has told him there would be no extermination.  Heydrich responds that Hitler will continue to say that, wink, wink.  Dr. Stuckart (Colin Firth) feels the Nuremberg Laws (which he wrote) should not be expanded.  He favors sterilization.  The biggest ass-kisser makes the case for using the Jews for slave labor, but no one listens to him because nobody likes him. There is some discussion of forced emigration, but even the U.S. doesn’t want them.  (I have to admit, they are not wrong here.)  The problem is just going to get worse because soon the German army will have finished off the Soviet Union.  (They don’t see Stalingrad coming later that year.)  The discussion moves from evacuation to extermination.  The Jews need to be “physically eradicated”.  Eichmann gives an update on the efficiency of gas in killing large numbers of Jews in disguised showers.  Almost all of the guests bang on the table to show they are impressed.  “Keep the trains rolling!” says the smirking Heydrich.  By the end, everyone is on board with exterminating Jews by way of death camps.  To hell with the military’s need for the trains.  The movie closes with Heydrich and Eichmann listening to a record by Schubert, a Jew.

                The acting is stellar, especially by Branagh and Firth.  The actors stayed in costume and in character throughout each day of shooting.  The movie was shot in long segments that required memorization of long stretches of dialogue.  This helps give the movie the feel of a play.  The set did not have movable walls, so Super 16 mm. film was used to get an intimate vibe.  If it wasn’t for the daylight, this could be a horror movie.  The dialogue is certainly horrific.  And some of it comes from the malevolent, yet charming, Heydrich.  He takes Kirtzinger and Stuckart aside to threaten them with toeing the line.  It was dangerous to be a moderate in Nazi politics. 

                It is chilling to see this reenactment of a meeting that resulted in the killing of millions of human beings.  It is informative because although most people are familiar with the Holocaust, few are knowledgeable about how it came about.  The implementation did not come from Hitler.  He supported the idea of a “final solution”, but it was underlings who implemented it.  The movie makes it clear that organized extermination was not agreed on until this meeting.  It might surprise some to see that there was a disagreement about what to do.  Basically, it was the civilians versus the SS.  Obviously, the SS had its way.  Part of that was from bullying.

                “The Wannsee Conference” is a German film.  Before the meeting, the Nazis mingle and laugh it up.  One of them asks “why didn’t the Allies take in the Jews?”  Why indeed, but this was thrown in to indict the Allies.  Low blow, but deserving.  Another references the Vatican ignoring what was going on.  Another low blow that is sadly true.  One of the men tells a story.  “Himmler fainted when witnessing an execution.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of.  It proves we Germans are humans”.  When one questions that the use of trains to transport Jews when the military needs them in Russia.  He is told the final solution takes precedence.   These conversations are the only discussions of alternatives to extermination.  Once Heydrich (Dietrich Mattausch) convenes the meeting, it focuses on just the extermination.  It is the only item on the agenda.  Stuckart (Peter Fitz) argues for exempting half-Jews.  Some are serving in the army.  He is laughed at as a Jew-lover.  The movie concludes with the inevitable decision to use the death camps to solve the Jewish problem.    

                This movie has a German cast and I did not recognize any of them.  (Only about half have Wikipedia pages.)  In spite of that, it is well-acted.  Mattausch is good as Himmler.  He comes off as impatient over questioning, but charming.  He flirts with the female secretary.  Eichmann is given a bigger role.  It appears that the film wanted to make a case for Eichmann as an architect of the Holocaust. “Eichmann is more than just a shipping agent, after all.”  The other men are portrayed as evil clowns.  They are not identified on screen, like what was done in “Conspiracy”.  Their conversations are malevolently banal.  There is quite a bit more laughing in this version.  On the other hand, there are a lot less “Heil, Hitlers”.  The dialogue has more trivial comments, but it does a better job of making clear the belief that Jews were considered inferior by these loathsome individuals.  However, overall this version is less chilling.

                The movies have much in common.  “The Wannsee Conference” covers this significant, yet mainly overlooked, meeting.  It is impressive that it was a German production.  I’m not sure how it went over with the German public, but at least some Germans watched it and felt shame for their past.  However, I can’t help wondering whether some of the dialogue might have found sympathetic ears.  “Conspiracy” did not have to be made.  It certainly found more viewers and thus more people became informed about the meeting.  Branagan provided the star power that the first film lacks.  In every respect, it is a better film than the other.  And if you are only going to watch one, it clearly is the better choice.  Regardless, please watch either.  We have all seen Holocaust films that gut punch us with what the death camps were like, but most of us have not seen films about how the death camps came about.  How could humans do that to other humans?  Both of these films show that it was morally inferior people who set the ball rolling.  There was bureaucracy backing the “Final Solution”.  Petty men given power over vast numbers of people.  Men who were willingly corrupted by an ideology that tapped into their inherent anti-semitism.  Men, like Eichmann, who were willing to talk about their crimes without shame.  Without him, we wouldn’t have this film.  And without him and others like him, we would not have had the Holocaust.  Sadly, one takeaway is that something like this could happen again because it does not take supervillain abilities to pull off this kind of crime.

Conspiracy  =  A-

The Wannsee Conference  =  B-