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by Elie Wiesel villa like so many others, a meeting like other meetings. But there is a difference: the men around the table are discussing the greatest crime in history. Here you have the story of Wannsee. And here you have the content of the film, The Wannsee Conference, that tells this story. Men chat among themselves or take part in a discussion about "the Final Solution" as if their sole concern were the production or distribution of any commodity. They enjoy themselves, get angry, get carried away, fall asleep, let memories and jokes fly, while their subject will make future generations shudder: the liquidation of the Jewish people. T o what extent is this scenario truthful? Who knows? A summary exists of the meeting, and Eichmann at the time of his trial in Jerusalem authenticated it. But it is merely a dry, precise, bureaucratic document: the purpose of the meeting, its duration, the participants, their professional opinions, the conclusion. In so few words, eleven million human beings are thus condemned to perishto be shot down, suffocated, massacred. Where does the rest of the film come from? I'd like to know. I am wary of "fiction" when it's combined with a documentary or lived work. Everything that touches this Event defies

The Wannsee Conference: just another meeting. the imagination. In this domain, art is fied, like after a good day's work? doomed to fail; it will never express In 90 minutesthe length of the the experience of victims crushed by meeting as well as the filmeverydehumanized beings. The real is so thing is set. Except the thorny probpowerful that it clouds the imagina- lem of the Mischlingethe Jews born tion. To imagine Auschwitz is almost of mixed marriages. How shocking blasphemous. that their fate took more time in the Nevertheless, the film (directed by discussion than the destiny of all the Heinz Shirk, produced by Manfred 11 million Jews of Europe. . . . For the Korytowski) does contain the essen- participants at Wannsee, the Jews tial. The technocrats's coldness. Hey- hardly posed a human problem. A drich's obsession. Eichmann's concern technical obstacle is what they were to with efficiency. The speeches of var- these convinced Nazis, who believed ious government representatives who they had all the answers, all the solucared only about protecting their game tions to all problems. preserve. The quarrels of authority, Their favorite solution? Death. It the jealousy of experts. How does one served them as they served it. Death explain that there was never a point at never knew as great a triumph as the which any of the participants felt the one it carried from this peaceful and horror of what was being said around luxurious villa which, according to a the table? How could the secretary decision of Berlin's Senate, will betake notes without being seized by ter- come a museum. If wafls can rememror? How could these high-ranking ber, visitors will be afraid to step in. functionaries speak of the murder of But isn't fear a part of history too? an entire people and go home satis- Translated from French by Annette Insdorf VIDEO FINDERS We locate and obtain any obscure or hard-to-find films on video tape. We're expensive, but we're very good. 5 Searches $5 & SASE VIDEO FINDERS P.O. Box 4351, Dept. F C Los Angeles, C A 90078

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