It was 80 years ago this month that 15 high-ranking Nazi officials met in a villa on the outskirts of Berlin. Among them were names like Adolph Eichmann and Heinrich Muller. They gathered over snacks and alcohol to address a single issue desired by their leader, Adolf Hitler. And in less than two hours, they came up with an answer.

They called it “The Final Solution.”

It was a plan to wipe out the Jewish population of German-occupied Europe. It was unspeakably evil and horribly simple. Evict Jews from their homes, transport them to concentration camps, work them to death or murder them outright, then burn the bodies.

It was meant to exterminate an entire race of people, people like Rita Mermelstein, who would later take the married name Rita Smilovitz. If that last name sounds familiar, it’s because she would become the mother of Bernie Smilovitz, the popular, long-serving sports anchor for WDIV-TV (Channel 4) here in Detroit.

Detroit Free Press article.