You are speaking of Dr Kritzinger, I think...he was arrested after the war, questioned...but not tried. He alone of the survivors of the conference apologized. I wonder if there's a good biography of him somewhere.

Bigotry is unjustifiable but one must consider the times. The liberal icon Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a decision upholding forced sterilization; in the states of the former Confederacy marriage between whites and blacks (but not Native Americans or, I think, Asians)--and "black" was legally defined as to at least having a black great-grandparent--was illegal until...um...the mid-sixties if I remember aright.

I too respect this film for portraying the Nazis as a group of "normal" people having a conference. The fact that they are discussing such unspeakable horrors in such normal and banal terms only adds to the fact that these men are just plain cold hearted monsters. Even the most "sympathetic" character at the table was an ardent racist who had no problem with segregation and discrimination. He only objected to the outright killing of the Jews. This is hardly a "noble" positon.

It reminds me of a line in The Addams Family, where Wednesday goes to a costume ball dressed as a "homicidal maniac", wearing her normal clothes, because, according to her, "they look like everyone else".
This is part of the strength of Conspiracy. The Wannsee Conference is presented as a kind of board meeting, staffed by bureaucrats and functionaries, none of whom are obvious monsters

The scariest thing about the Nazis was the fact that they were normal looking people that had families who they went home to after plotting the killing of millions & loved their families & their country. That these educated family men could convince themselves that they were doing what was best for god & country is the scariest thing about the Nazis. It would be so much easier to understand how the Nazis did what they did if they were monsters & not normal men.

He had an absolutely instrumental role, but he was not the cause of the Holocaust. His function went gradually from being in charge of Jewish forced emigration (I am not using any euphemisms: the goal was to get them out of Germany) in the thirties to coordinating the transit of people from cities or ghettos into concentration camps. If Arendt's widely documented book is right, he never had any real decision-making power. I don't mean to say that he was not a horrible criminal, only that his function in the crime was to transport people and follow orders.

Furthermore, it is very far from the truth to label Eichmann the 'greatest cause for the final solution'. Granted, his involvement and work was utterly necessary for the execution of the Final Solution, yet Himmler and Heydrich, and even Göring and Göbbels played a more integral part in bringing the ideals to fruition. (Remembering this is purely historical opinion) Eichmann did not join the Nazi party in 1932 with deftly anti-Semitic views. His vitriolic hatred gradually developed during his years in the SS and SD and being under the influence of older male figures during this time.

Agree. For the past 60 years the world has made the mistake of personifying evil as a snarling, spitting, monocle-wearing Hollywood caricature SS stormtrooper with a Luger on his hip and a bull-whip in his hand. Evil is often actually best implemented by quiet, grey bureaucrats who own puppies, grow vegetables in their gardens, kiss their children before they go to bed, don't smoke, etc. Evil usually doesn't walk around wearing a sign around its neck saying "Beware, this is Evil!" That is why people tend to ignore real evil when they see it, and allow it to get away with so much

you still do that table pounding thing in university in europe, when the prof has finished. very common thing.

It may well be historically accurate, but it was likely the director's intent to have the characters appear menacing

Tho they did seem to portray several of the attendees almost laughably as "the sensitive Nazis" any doubts of their true sentiments were subtly yet horrifically communicated by that wordless, hate-filled, demonic-like table pounding.