At a villa on the shore of the Wannsee, a lake in suburban Berlin, on 20th January 1942 one of the most terrible meetings in human history convened. Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich and organized and minuted by Adolf Eichmann, it brought together representatives of all the principal Nazi agencies in eastern Europe.

Mark Roseman is Professor of History at the University of Southampton. His last book, also published by Penguin, was THE PAST IN HIDING.