Now Showing: Solution

Solution
Genre: Drama/Historical
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Sheen, Sean Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Toby Jones

Plot: In 1942, a meeting is held in order to determine the method by which the Nazi government is to implement Adolf Hitler's policy — that the German sphere of influence should be free of Jews, including those in the occupied territories of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and France. As the film opens, various officials from different German agencies arrive and mingle at a lakeside villa in the Berlin borough of Wannsee. Among those present: Wilhelm Stuckart (Michael Sheen), a lawyer representing the Interior Ministry and co-author of the Nuremberg Laws; Reinhard Heydrich (Benedict Cumberbatch), Heinrich Himmler's right-hand man in the SS; Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (Ralph Fiennes), deputy head of the Reich Chancellery; Gerhard Klopfer (Sean Harris), a lawyer from the Nazi Party Chancellery; Martin Luther (Toby Jones), the Foreign Ministry's liaison to the SS; Adolf Eichmann (Daniel Craig), who will act as a liasan between the various Nazi organizations and help run things from an operations standpoint; and Heinrich Muller (Joseph Fiennes), Gestapo chief and Adolf Eichmann's immediate superior.

The members of the meeting acknowledge that all the Jews in Europe cannot be efficiently contained, nor can they be forced onto other countries. They discuss the possibilities of sterilization and of the possible exemptions for mixed race Jews. Stuckart loses his temper and insists that a sturdy legal framework is paramount. He also chides Klopfer for his simplistic portrayal of Jews as subhuman beasts, while painting his own picture of Jews as clever, manipulative, and untrustworthy. Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and takes Stuckart aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness, implying that others in the SS will take an unwanted interest in his actions.

When the meeting reconvenes, Heydrich steers the discussion in the direction of wholesale extermination using gas chambers. Kritzinger objects on the grounds that Hitler had given him personal guarantees that extermination of the Jews was not being considered. Others are shocked to discover that the SS have been building extermination camps and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under their noses. It now becomes clear to everyone at the meeting that they have been called together not to discuss the problem but to be given orders by the SS, who are intent on wresting control of the operation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. Eichmann describes the method that will be used: the gassing. Many have already been killed in specially-designed trucks and his figures include tens of thousands of victims.

A break is called and this time it is Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich, who warns that Kritzinger is influential but not invulnerable. Heydrich tells Kritzinger that he wants not only consent but active support, and Kritzinger realizes that any hopes he had of assuring livable conditions for the Jewish population are unrealistic. Kritzinger tells Heydrich a cautionary tale about a man consumed by hatred of his father, so much so that his life loses its meaning once his father dies. Heydrich interprets this as a warning that a similar fate awaits them if they allow their lives to revolve around antisemitism, but rejects the possibility.

Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting, giving clear directives that the SS are to be obeyed in all matters relating to the elimination of the Jews. He also asks for explicit assent and support from each official, one by one. After giving careful instructions on the secrecy of the minutes and notes of the meeting. The meeting ends and everyone begins to depart. Servants tidy up the villa and all records of the meeting are destroyed as if it never happened. Five years later, Luther's copy of the meeting's minutes are found U.S. Army Investigators in the archives of the German Foreign Office in 1947. It is the only record of the Wansee Conference meeting in existence that survives today.