116: "Conspiracy" with Kenneth Branagh

P&C drink and review Pigweed's Cocoa / Peanut Butter Porter, then, with special guest Longinus, review the movie Conspiracy. The movie covers the Wannsee Conference of 1942, where Reinhart Heydrich gathers German leaders to discuss the "evacuation" of Jews from German-occupied territory. Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh) puts an exclamation point on "German efficiency." At first there is a lot of squabbling about the right approach from a legal / procedural point of view, but Heydrich leads them inexorably to a predetermined solution. The horrifying story calls to mind a quote from C.S. Lewis: "The greatest evil is ... now done ... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."