Conspiracy (DVD)

My rating is more of a 4.5Thanks for reading!On July 7th, 1753 the Parliament of Great Britain approved the ‘Jewish Naturalization Act’; this ruling was proposed with the goal of making the process of becoming a British Subject equitable for Jewish immigrants as they were previously required to take the Christian Sacrament prior to being naturalized. This act allowed Jews that had been living in Britain for a minimum of three years to petition for citizenship while simultaneously remaining devoted to their Jewish faith.Debates related to this ordinance are the supposed origin of the “Jewish question”, with this expression acting as a proxy for disapproval towards the singularity of Jews as a separate community of individuals amongst a heightened sense of nationalism and the creation of new Nation-States. Related points of contention escalated further, and it wasn’t long until the “Jewish Question” would directly parallel with anti-semitic policies.Dramatized in ‘𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚’, on January 20th, 1942 the Wannsee Conference was held in Berlin with a number of senior government officials of Nazi Germany for the purposes of preparing and submitting an officiated “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” during World War II.Contrary to popular belief, there are reasons to think that the individual participants of the Wannsee Conference didn’t think of their meeting as a crystalizing or grandiosely achieving moment. Having been published almost a decade earlier on September 15th, 1935, The Nuremberg Laws were enacted so as to expel Jewish influence from German Society; in the most gracious of terms, the hope at the time was to encourage their emigration elsewhere by making it impossible for Jews to conduct business and go on about their daily lives.The catch, and likely not mentioned during the Wannsee Conference as it could be presumed as common knowledge, were additional qualifiers that made voluntary emigration all the less viable, with an example of such being the requirement that a Jewish person remit as much as ninety percent of their own wealth in taxes before leaving Germany. Economically compromising, and essentially kindling damaged collateral, by 1938 potential Jewish emigrants (willing or otherwise) were limited in terms of territories that were inclined to accept them. In creating and reinforcing a narrative that claims Jews come with turmoil one could then posture their own dedication to ‘expelling them away’ as an extension of allyship in a numerically tangible manner; this not only explains the fixation on exact numbers that dominate much of 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚’s dialogue (that otherwise feels like logistical hoo-hah), but the suggested urgency as it relates to specific areas of Europe and the USSR.On a number of occasions 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 reminds us that a majority of the individuals present at the Wannsee Conference had previous experience studying law. While this doesn’t drive an immediate wedge between humanity and some sense of civic duty, relative conversations allude to a larger set of standards that were preemptively advertised as “laws intended to protect German blood”. This protection felt imperative at the time as Germany’s economy had started to suffer, and this necessitated schmoozing here-and-there as to justify the possibility of hurting someone with German ancestry without having it weigh too heavily on their conscience. This is reflected in laws that encouraged discretion when deciding if one is “acting like a Jew” (with no clear indication as to what this means), and the meticulousness that prowls about this dramatized version of the Wannsee Conference; consequently, this practically lends to entertaining antagonistic points of view save “accurate” depictions of ambivalence or discord that are specific to the subject of mass murder or violence. To screenwriter Loring Mandel’s credit, it is unfortunate that no-one can know for certain what was said during this meeting, but much of the dialogue is framed in a way that suggests industrialized genocide was both novel and taboo as a strategy when the contextualized lexicon can simultaneously interpret this conference as little more than a cooperative spearhead: in so many words, it was instrumental in making the Schutzstaffel (SS for short, and German for ‘protective echelon’) take on and accept official responsibility for a larger culturally-imposed obligation.Points of methodology aside (as Senior Colonel Adolf Eichmann admitted that this topic was discussed, but was deleted from the Wannsee Protocol), 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 goes out of its own way to explore contradictory material by superimposing conversations that are possible despite being contextually unlikely. Namely, on the topic of psychological repercussions, Major Rudolph Lange presents as the reluctant soldier that expresses concern over the residual effect of “evacuating Jews” on Germany’s own soldiers, but little biographical material substantiates this pontificated consideration outside of what is now known in general about military service and its relationship with PTSD.The same can be said for Chancellor Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger, who for theatrical purposes is the sole voice of notable ethical dissent despite only having his attendance confirmed during the Wannsee Conference and little acknowledgement of a contribution made by him that would warrant a dramatic reproduction. This characterization, while potentially misplaced, isn’t too much of a stretch oddly enough: Kritzinger was the 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 participant to express feelings of remorse or shame during his post-war interrogation, and consequently makes him appropriate as a vessel of friction for viewers to identify with outside of the more typified portrayals of Nazis in the cinematic medium.What is more important than these fictionalized protests, however, is what’s true according to the detailed minutes in combination with a historical endorsement of industrialized genocide: administrative hardships and perceived expendability of labor would always take priority over the guarantee of “livable conditions” for individuals deemed ‘Jewish enough’ to be deported or “forcibly evacuated”, and the Wannsee Conference was about much more than justifying or condoning what is now presumed to have been catergorized as unethical behavior.On its own, 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 can best be summated as a phalanx of informed speculation, and this is perhaps out of necessity given the vagueness of the Wannsee Protocol and edits made by both Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich before their official distribution. Nonetheless, the relative notes (which only one surviving copy of this protocol was found in the German Foreign Office in 1947) have since provided insight regarding the bureaucratic aspects of the Hitler regime, and Mandel’s writing reads between the lines with both curiosity and cautioned plausibility. It is likely that 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 isn’t the first time audience members have been or will be subjected to the ramblings of at least twelve angry men, and this collective indignation comes to a grueling point when Eichmann berates a guard for acting out of uniform and adds further that deviation from a determined fault “never ever just happens”.Semblances of subjective or disposable empathy can only be stretched so thin for these dramatized accomplices - because, despite any musings, that’s what they are - but Frank Pierson’s direction in combination with his tenacious leads (Namely, Kenneth Branagh, who’s quite chilling as Heydrich) unveils a terrifying lesson in scrupulousness and toxified patriotism. Men - especially in groups, and especially those with a chain of command - are nothing like the monsters that hide in our closets or take refuge underneath our beds.Sometimes they’re actually much worse.

On January 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."Representing the SS at the meeting were: SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt-RSHA) and one of Reichsführer-SS (SS chief) Heinrich Himmler's top deputies; SS Major General Heinrich Müller, chief of RSHA Department IV (Gestapo); SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, chief of the RSHA Department IV B 4 (Jewish Affairs); SS Colonel Eberhard Schöngarth, commander of the RSHA field office for the Government General in Krakow, Poland; SS Major Rudolf Lange, commander of RSHA Einsatzkommando 2, deployed in Latvia in the autumn of 1941; and SS Major General Otto Hofmann, the chief of SS Race and Settlement Main Office.Representing the agencies of the State were: State Secretary Roland Freisler (Ministry of Justice); Ministerial Director Wilhelm Kritzinger (Reich Cabinet); State Secretary Alfred Meyer (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories-German-occupied USSR); Ministerial Director Georg Leibrandt (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories); Undersecretary of State Martin Luther (Foreign Office); State Secretary Wilhelm Stuckart (Ministry of the Interior); State Secretary Erich Naumann (Office of Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan); State Secretary Josef Bühler (Office of the Government of the Governor General-German-occupied Poland); and Ministerial Director Gerhard Klopfer (Nazi Party Chancellery).The "Final Solution" was the code name for the systematic, deliberate, physical annihilation of the European Jews. At some still undetermined time in 1941, Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder. Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference (1) to inform and secure support from government ministries and other interested agencies relevant to the implementation of the “Final Solution,” and (2) to disclose to the participants that Hitler himself had tasked Heydrich and the RSHA with coordinating the operation. The men at the table did not deliberate whether such a plan should be undertaken, but instead discussed the implementation of a policy decision that had already been made at the highest level of the Nazi regime.At the time of the Wannsee Conference, most participants were already aware that the National Socialist regime had engaged in mass murder of Jews and other civilians in the German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union and in Serbia. Some had learned of the actions of the Einsatzgruppen and other police and military units, which were already slaughtering tens of thousands of Jews in the German-occupied Soviet Union. Others were aware that units of the German Army and the SS and police were killing Jews in Serbia. None of the officials present at the meeting objected to the Final Solution policy that Heydrich announced.Not present at the meeting were representatives of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) and the Reich Railroads (Reichsbahn) in the German Ministry of Transportation. The SS and police had already negotiated agreements with the German Army High Command on the murder of civilians, including Soviet Jews, in the spring of 1941, prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union. In late September 1941, Hitler had authorized the Reich Railroads to transport German, Austrian, and Czech Jews to locations in German-occupied Poland and the German-occupied Soviet Union, where German authorities would kill the overwhelming majority of them.Heydrich indicated that approximately 11,000,000 Jews in Europe would fall under the provisions of the "Final Solution." In this figure, he included not only Jews residing in Axis-controlled Europe, but also the Jewish populations of the United Kingdom, and the neutral nations (Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and European Turkey). For Jews residing in the Greater German Reich and holding the status of subjects of the German Reich, the Nuremberg Laws would serve as a basis for determining who was a Jew.Heydrich announced that “during the course of the Final Solution, the Jews will be deployed under appropriate supervision at a suitable form of labor deployment in the East. In large labor columns, separated by gender, able-bodied Jews will be brought to those regions to build roads, whereby a large number will doubtlessly be lost through natural reduction. Any final remnant that survives will doubtless consist of the elements most capable of resistance. They must be dealt with appropriately, since, representing the fruit of natural selection, they are to be regarded as the core of a new Jewish revival.”The participants discussed a number of other issues raised by the new policy, including the establishment of the Theresienstadt camp-ghetto as a destination for elderly Jews as well Jews who were disabled or decorated in World War I, the deferment until after the war of “Final Solution” measures against Jews married to non-Jews or persons of mixed descent as defined by the Nuremberg laws, prospects for inducing Germany's Axis partners to give up their Jewish populations, and preparatory measures for the “evacuations.”Despite the euphemisms which appeared in the protocols of the meeting, the aim of the Wannsee Conference was clear to its participants: to further the coordination of a policy aimed at the physical annihilation of the European Jews.