Today (January 20), marks the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, a meeting in the suburbs of Berlin at which 15 leading Nazis and German officials met to approve, plan and implement the so-called ‘Final Solution’.

Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich the meeting was a critical development in plans to execute genocide of the Jews.  At Wannsee, Heydrich coldly outlined how European Jews would be rounded up and transported to extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, where it was envisaged that 11 million Jews would be murdered.  20 January 1942 provides a stark reminder that the Holocaust was planned and perpetrated by humans fuelled by a hateful racist ideology.  20 January 1942 represents, therefore, ‘one day’ of chilling significance.  It compels us to understand this traumatic and complex history in deep and thoughtful ways.  It also obligates us to educate all young people to recognise, speak out and challenge expressions or acts of antisemitism, racism and ideological extremism.  The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education is committed to this vital work.