Adolph Eichmann later fondly recalled the Wannsee Conference as a very pleasant gathering with good food at which even his intimidating boss Reinhard Heydrich lightened up towards his starstruck young secretary.
Loud guffaws of laughter regularly echo throughout the plush surroundings as the delegates are plied with ever increasing quantities of food and drink (while Heydrich sticks to tea), making it easier to understand how they were able to light-heartedly wave through atrocity after atrocity with scarcely a murmur. (The slightly mysterious young woman taking the minutes, identified in the credits only as 'The Secretary', responds good-naturedly to Heydrich's oleaginous compliment on her looks, and thereafter seems strangely unfazed by the horror of what she's writing down. Was she based on a real person ever identified after the war?)
In the context of such complacent and jovial acceptance of mass murder by a room full of grown men, Peter Fitz as Wilhelm Stuckart (like Colin Firth in the English-language remake, 'Conspiracy') emerges by default as the nearest thing the film provides to a hero, being the only one to raise any objections; albeit on grounds of common sense rather than morality.
With the exception of Heydrich, Eichmann, Müller and Freisler, it's extremely difficult to keep track of exactly who is who. But it doesn't really matter, as WHAT is being said is what matters; and that comes through only too loud and clear.
Loud guffaws of laughter regularly echo throughout the plush surroundings as the delegates are plied with ever increasing quantities of food and drink (while Heydrich sticks to tea), making it easier to understand how they were able to light-heartedly wave through atrocity after atrocity with scarcely a murmur. (The slightly mysterious young woman taking the minutes, identified in the credits only as 'The Secretary', responds good-naturedly to Heydrich's oleaginous compliment on her looks, and thereafter seems strangely unfazed by the horror of what she's writing down. Was she based on a real person ever identified after the war?)
In the context of such complacent and jovial acceptance of mass murder by a room full of grown men, Peter Fitz as Wilhelm Stuckart (like Colin Firth in the English-language remake, 'Conspiracy') emerges by default as the nearest thing the film provides to a hero, being the only one to raise any objections; albeit on grounds of common sense rather than morality.
With the exception of Heydrich, Eichmann, Müller and Freisler, it's extremely difficult to keep track of exactly who is who. But it doesn't really matter, as WHAT is being said is what matters; and that comes through only too loud and clear.