HBO Film Conspiracy is the story of the 90-minute meeting January 20, 1942, of 15 members of the German High Command at Wannsee, outside Berlin, to decide the annihilation of over four million Jews - by industrialized murder.

It is a journey into the heart of evil. In a cold, blood curdlingly-matter-of-fact discussion, the exact method of murder is agreed upon. There is no physical and/or visual depiction of what they discuss or of what is to come, namely the Holocaust and its victims.

The film is riveting and I defy anyone to turn away from the screen when any of the principals, led by Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich and Tucci as Eichmann, are on camera.

Frank Pierson directed and never once does he have cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt shoot above or below eye level. You are there in the company of these 15 men during this awesome, nay gruesome, page in history. And this HBO film is only the beginning. Screenwriter Loring Mandel is now writing the sequel to "Conspiracy," which is called "Complicity." It's the story of a similar meeting, this time between leaders of the U.S. and Great Britain, a year later in Bermuda. By that time, 80% of the four million Jews had already been eliminated according to the detailed blueprint set forth at Wannsee. /.../

The Wannsee site [picture below] is now a Holocaust Museum. The HBO film crew shot there for five days, during which tours going through the museum were shocked at the sight of Nazi uniforms on some of the actors. [From Variety, by Army Archerd]

The following persons took part in the discussion about the final solution of the Jewish question which took place in Berlin, am Grossen Wannsee No. 56/58 on 20 January 1942: SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and Reichsamtleiter Dr. Leibbrandt, Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories. Secretary of State Dr. Stuckart, Reich Ministry for the Interior, Secretary of State Neumann Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, Secretary of State Dr. Freisler, Reich Ministry of Justice, Secretary of State Dr. Bühler, Office of the Government General, Under Secretary of State Dr. Luther Foreign Office, SS-Oberführer Klopfer, Party Chancellery, Ministerialdirektor Kritzinger, Reich Chancellery, SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann, Race and Settlement Main Office, SS-Gruppenführer Müller, SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann, Reich Main Security Office, SS-Oberführer Dr. Schöngarth Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Government General, Security Police and SD , and SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Lange Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the General-District Latvia, as deputy of the Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the Reich Commissariat "Eastland", Security Police and SD

Excerpts from the Wannsee Conference Protocols
Responsibility for the handling of the final solution of the Jewish question, he [Heydrich] said, would lie centrally with the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police (Chief of the Security Police and the SD), without regard to geographic boundaries. The Chief of the Security Police and the SD then gave a brief review of the struggle conducted up to now against this foe. The most important elements are:

a) Forcing the Jews out of the various areas of life of the German people.
B.) Forcing the Jews out of the living space of the German people.

Emigration has now been replaced by evacuation of the Jews to the East, as a further possible solution, with the appropriate prior authorization by the Fuehrer. However, this operation should be regarded only as a provisional option; but it is already supplying practical experience of great significance in view of the coming final solution of the Jewish question. In the course of this final solution of the European Jewish question approximately 11 million Jews may be taken into consideration, distributed over the individual countries /.../.

As far as the figures for Jews of the various foreign countries are concerned, the numbers given include only Jews by religion since the definition of Jews according to racial principles is in part still lacking there. Under appropriate direction the Jews are to be utilized for work in the East in an expedient manner in the course of the final solution. In large columns, with the sexes separated, Jews capable of work will be moved into these areas as they build roads, during which a large proportion will no doubt drop out through natural reduction. The remnant that eventually remains will require suitable treatment; because it will without doubt represent the most resistant part, it consists of a natural selection that could, on its release, become the germ-cell of a new Jewish revival. (Witness the experience of history.) The first-degree Mischling [half-breeds] exempted from evacuation will be sterilized in order to obviate progeny and to settle the Mischling problem for good. Sterilization is voluntary, but it is the condition for remaining in the Reich. The sterilized Mischling is subsequently free of all restrictive regulations to which he was previously subject. Secretary of State Dr. Buehler put on record that the Government-General [Poland] would welcome it if the final solution of this problem was begun in the Government-General, as, on the one hand, the question of transport there played no major role and considerations of labor supply would not hinder the course of this Aktion. Jews must be removed as fast as possible from the Government-General. Furthermore, of the approximately 2 1/2 million Jews under consideration, the majority were in any case unfit for work. Secretary of State Dr. Buehler further states that the solution of the Jewish question in the Government-General was primarily the responsibility of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD and that his work would have the support of the authorities of the Government-General. He had only one request: that the Jewish question in this area be solved as quickly as possible. In conclusion, there was a discussion of the various possible forms which the solution might take, and here both Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and Secretary of State Dr. Buehler were of the opinion that certain preparatory work for the final solution should be carried out locally in the area concerned, but that, in doing so, alarm among the population must be avoided. 

Ask the question: Does "education" equal "morality"? The answer should be obvious. The plan drawn up at Wannsee was for the murder of eleven million Jews. One of the last things Hitler did, just before committing suicide, was to apologize to the German people for not finishing the job.