Wannsee is a suburban town, situated 15 miles southwest of Berlin, Germany. The town is essentially an island, with water (a river or a lake) surrounding the area. The namesake is infamous for the Wannsee Conference –a venue where Nazi leaders met to institutionalize the Holocaust. “The Little White House” is on the other side of the river from Wannsee. Scholars contend that it was in this house that President Harry S. Truman ordered the use of the atomic bomb on Japan. The confluence of these landmark events is not entirely an accident. Historically, the upper echelons of society occupied the suburban lakefront properties, as it was a comfortable retreat from Berlin. The Nazis eventually occupied many of the buildings, but Wannsee escaped Allied bombing campaigns due to its suburban location. Understandably, the island and the surrounding areas are full of historic events related to Nazi Germany and to the Cold War era.