On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference was held in Berlin, where senior Nazi officials convened to discuss the implementation of the 'Final Solution'—the systematic genocide of the Jewish population in Europe. This meeting marked a chilling escalation in the Nazi regime's anti-Semitic policies, formalizing plans for mass extermination. The conference is a critical historical event that underscores the bureaucratic nature of the Holocaust and the chilling efficiency with which the Nazis pursued their genocidal agenda.

The Wannsee Conference of 1942, which formalized plans for the Holocaust, became central to a body of Holocaust literature and poetry that sought to bear witness to the atrocities of industrialized extermination. Writers like Paul Celan and Charlotte Delbo used their works to confront the horrors of this period, emphasizing memory, loss, and the moral implications of complicity.