The opening of the new exhibition at Wannsee has been timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camps. The House of the Wannsee Conference has been open as a memorial since 1992, but organizers hope the revamped exhibition will increase awareness of how Adolf Eichmann and fellow Nazis planned the extermination of Europe’s Jews. At a press conference, museum director Hans-Christian Jasch said the new exhibition aimed “to attract a wider audience,” in particular among pupils at Berlin schools. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Hungarian Holocaust survivor Eva Fahidi will attend unveiling ceremony. “Until now, the average duration of a visit has been 30 minutes… We are aiming for visitors to stay between 60 and 90 minutes,” he added. The previous exhibition, which was largely text-based, has been reworked entirely to become more didactic and interactive, Jasch said. Museum directors also underlined the importance of efforts to increase Holocaust awareness against a backdrop of recent “discussions over anti-Semitism and racism” in Germany, he said. Located on the shores of the Wannsee Lake just southwest of the German capital, the lavish villa was the site of a notorious meeting of 15 high-ranking Nazi officials on January 20, 1942.
