Wannsee, January 20, 1942
MEMORANDUM FOR SENIOR NAZI PARTY MEMBERS
SUBJECT:
THE FINAL SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH QUESTION
1. PURPOSE. Open with a short, clear purpose sentence. (Why are
you writing this memorandum?) (You will be writing an internal
memo within the Nazi party either for or against the Final
Solution, using the arguments of the top level officials of the
Nazi party.
2. DISCUSSION. Put the recommendation, conclusion, or most
important information (the main point) next. Here you will
analyze the issue, provide “your” Nazi point of view for or
against the Final Solution and why, and thoroughly explain your
support or opposition to the Solution.
3. (Organization:) Clearly separate each major section. Use
paragraphs, headings, or sections.
4. You must incorporate at least 3 outside critical sources
supporting your opinion. These critical sources must be
medical, legal, governmental, military, or other in relation to
the subject (i.e. educational or economic, etc.) in support of
your argument.
5. Make sure to address at least one major point of the
counterargument and incorporate vocabulary from Subsets 8/9.
Finally, sign the memo as if you were an official at the conference.
JOHN A. ARMY
Rank, Organization
Position
AFTER YOU WRITE THE MEMO (which should be about 1-1.5 pages), then
you will reflect on the following questions (which should be about
half a page in length):
1. What is your personal opinion of the Wannsee Conference and
this internal debate between the high ranking members of the
Nazi party?
2. Were you surprised that there were Nazi party members who were
against the Final Solution? Why or why not?
3. If you had to argue for the Final Solution, was this difficult
to do? Explain your answer. If you had to argue against the
Final Solution, was it difficult limiting your answers to the
Nazi point of view?
4. What did you think of their conversations surrounding their
debate? On defining being Jewish or being German, on making
sure that the Final Solution was “legal” under German law, on
the nature of war, on food, and even sexuality? What insight
does this give you on history?
5. CAVEAT: The point of this activity is not for you to be
sympathetic to the Nazi point of view. Ultimately, this is an
exercise on expanding your point of view by going outside your
comfort zone and training your brain to logistically find the
evidence necessary to prove a point, even if it is
existentially and philosophically against what you believe.
With that in mind, once you complete this activity, how can you
apply the skills learned here (not necessarily the content) to
the career choice you are pursuing here at New Vision? Or how
can you apply it to what you are learning out on rotation?