THE MAIN “CIVILISATIONAL MISSION” OF THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE IS TO DESTROY ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Abstract

A conversation between Ukrainian Holocaust researcher Anna Medvedovska and Professor of Jewish Studies at the Department of History at Northwestern University in Chicago, Johann Petrovsky-Stern, is dedicated to discussing the documentary film by German director Matti Geschonnek, “The Wannsee Conference” (“Die Wannseekonferenz”, 2022). Using the documentary genre, the director does not shy away from artistic elements in order to convey the probable meaning of what has forever remained outside the protocols, documents, or any other sources. It is about ambivalent situations, psychological tension, and the true motives of the conference participants. Finally, the director questions our educational beliefs that education and science can eradicate xenophobia. Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern attempts to recreate both the overt and covert meanings that the director wanted to convey, as well as to find and analyze the “autonomy of the text” of this documentary, referring to the contemporary events of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Nazi highly educated elites who embodied the Holocaust, as well as the creators of modern Russian propaganda, are the eloquent examples with which Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern reinforces his argument in the interview.