Final Solution

The phrase had earlier been used to mean driving the Jews out of the German sphere of influence. In July 1941 Hermann Göring authorised Reinhard Heydrich to prepare a 'final solution' throughout Europe. Historians do not know the exact date of the decision to murder; it took shape during 1941, in the war against the USSR, as mass shootings were extended to whole Jewish communities, women and children included.

At the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 officials of the SS, the party and the ministries agreed how the 'Final Solution' was to be carried out, but did not take the decision itself. Its implementation – ghettos, shootings, deportations and extermination camps – cost the lives of some six million Jews. German documents avoided plain words and spoke of 'evacuation' or 'resettlement'.