70th anniversary of Nazi's 'final solution'

BERLIN, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- German President Christian Wulff held a conference on Friday, marking the 70th anniversary of the decision made by Nazi officials to exterminate the Jews.

Voice of America reported the conference was to remember the Wannsee Conference on Jan. 20, 1942, near Berlin, where Nazi officials adopted the "final solution to the Jewish question."

Wulff told attendees it is important never to forget the "unbelievable and unimaginable" mass killing of the 6 million Jews during World War II.

On that afternoon in 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Head Office, invited 15 high-ranking Nazi officials to a guesthouse in the Wannsee suburb of Berlin.

While the meeting's minutes do not mention any formal agreement on the matter, Humbodlt University historian Michael Wildt believes the meeting was intended as a way for Heydrich to inform officials of a plan that was already under way.

"Due to military conquest, the National Socialist regime suddenly had millions of Jews within its sphere of influence. As a result, its plans on how to get rid of these Jews became more monstrous, more gigantic," he told Deutsche Welle.