The question of who the 15 participants were and what they represented

A question that often comes up in these discussions is who these people really were, and what they represented. In effect, the Waansee Conference was a Hitler mandated SS-takeover over the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, and its practical implementation. Heydrich got his command from Hitler through Himmler, and in this meeting he functioned as the chief whip bullying all the other branches to conform into his plan.

All of the 15 attendants weren't there in capacity of their own power, many of them were there as representatives for their higher command. For example Kritzinger was there as a representative for Hans Lammers of the Reich Chancellory. And if we look at who these people represented, we can see that they represented the highest offices of excutive power in the entire Nazi regime.

This was Reinhard Hyedrich working for Heinrich Himmler getting all the other branches of the civil state and party apparatus onboard, including their superiors. Also, much of the power those people had weren't always grounded in the power of their offices, but on power of their personal strength. Most of them had fought their way up and made room for themselves in the nazi hierarchy on their personal power alone.

Gerhard Klopfer represented Martin Bormann and the Party Chancellory. Which was really the power seat for Rudolf Hess before Bormann maneuvered himself into an indespensible position, in effect ousting Hess from power.

Wilhelm Stuckart represented Wilhelm Frick and the Ministery of the Interior. Stuckart was also there as a consultant on the rewriting of the code of law, the Nuremberg Laws, which he was much responsible for writing in the first place.

Roland Freisler was State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the People's Court. On mandate of the Fuhrer Prinicip he acted as the executive power of the political courts, personally handling all the political cases against the nazi regime, handing out sentences ad hoc outside constitutional authority.

Martin Luther was there as a representative for Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Foreign Ministry. He was also very loyal to Himmler, and functioned as a liaison between the Foreign Ministry and the party.

Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger was the deputy head of the Reich Chancellery under Hans Lammers. Lammers was another one of those who had maneuvered himself into power. Later on, he conspired for a three party takeover between himself (state), Bormann (Party), and Wilhelm Keitel, the (Army) high command.

Erich Neumann represented the Ministries of Economy, Labour, Finances, Food, Transport and Armaments and Ammunition under the Office of the Four Year Plan. In effect, being Hermann Görings right hand man and representative at the conference.

Alfred Meyer represented the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories under Alfred Rosenberg, one of the nazi chief ideologists. Georg Leibbrandt also attended the conference on Rosenbergs request. They were there as representatives for the controlling powers of occupied territory, functioning as consultants on practical problems such as logistics.

Otto Hofmann was head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office, appointed by his superior Heinrich Himmler. His main responisbility was the Germanisation of the occupied territories, in effect being in charge of ethnic cleansing. And he functioned as a consultant for these issues during the conference.

Josef Bühler was a representative of Hans Frank, Governor-General for the occupied Polish territories, functioning as a consultant on the practical implementation of the genocide in occupied Poland.

Karl Eberhard Schöngarth, SS-Brigadeführer, attending the conference as the executive force behind the deportation of jews in occupied Poland. Heydrich was his superior.

Rudolf Lange was leader of the Einzatskommando 2 in Latvia, personally responsible for the genocide of some 30 000 people. In real life, he was anything but the conscious man seen in the film. And he was very much in favour of genocide, saying himself: "From the very beginning, the goal of EK2 was that radical solution of the Jewish problem by killing all Jews." He was attending the conference as a consultant on the solving of the practical problems of genocide. Langes immediate superior was Franz Walter Stahlecker, commanding the Einsatzgruppen death squads.

Together with Eichmann, Lange was the lowest ranking officer attending the conference, and the thought that he would speak up against his superiors is simply preposterous. He wasn't even there on behalf of his own power, but because of what he could contribute in practical matters during the discussions. Heydrich could have chosen between two other persons but chose Lange for several different reasons. Also as an SS man, he had at least three superiors in power over him attending the meeting, Eichmann, Müller, and Heydrich.

Adolf Eichmann, lieutenant colonel in the SS, working under Heydrich in the RSHA office for Jewish Affairs. He was overseeing the meeting itself, and acting as a liaison batween Heydrich and the attendants after the conference, overseeing the implementation of the decided plan. Müller was his immediate superior.

Heinrich Müller, chief of the Gestapo. Heydrich was his immediate superior, Eichmann his subordinate. Müller occupied a position in the Nazi hierarchy between Himmler, the overall head of the Nazi police, and Eichmann, the man entrusted with arranging the deportations of Jews to the Eastern ghettoes and death camps. Thus, although his chief responsibility was always police work within Germany, he was fully in charge and thus responsible to execute the extermination of the Jews of Europe

Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SS Reich Main Security Office and Acting Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, in effect the leader of occupied Czech territories. And at the conference, acting as the executive power behind Himmlers command.

Heydrich's main purpose was to impose his own authority on the various ministries and agencies involved in Jewish policy matters, and to avoid any disputes The simplest, most decisive way that Heydrich could ensure the smooth flow of deportations was by asserting his total control over the fate of the Jews in the Reich and the east, and bullying other interested parties into toeing the line of the RSHA.

Therefore, the attendants can be put into three different categories, sometimes overlapping with each other, as several parties were there to be consulted on the issues at hand, being coerced into accepting the policy, and then implementing the policy on a practical level.

So, the people responisble for holding the meeting were also the people responsible for carrying out the genocide, Eichmann, Müller, and Heydrich.

Being coerced into submission were:

Klopfer and the Party Chancellory (Bormann, Hess)
Stuckart and the Ministery of the Interior (Frick)
Freisler and the Reich Ministry of Justice
Luther and the Foreign Ministry (Ribbentrop)
Kritzinger and the Reich Chancellery (Lammers)
Neumann and the Office of the Four Year Plan (Göring)

Being consulted on practical issues and at the same time being coerced into implementing the genocide was:

Alfred Meyer and Georg Leibbrandt (Rosenberg) on the Eastern Front.
Hofmann, ethnic cleansing in occupied territories.
Bühler, deportation of jews in occupied Poland

Being consulted on matters of actual and practical genocide were:
Schöngarth and Lange, both loyal to Heydrich.

As the holocaust had already been decided on, the conference was a well rehearsed play being played up for the yet unknowing but willing participants. The attendants were consulted to believe they had any actual say so in the matter, when it was already a foregone conclusion the holocaust would happen anyway. It was a way to invite all the branches, getting them onboard, coercing them to accept, and making them all accomplices of the holocaust.