Suicides in the Nazi Concentration Camps

Abstract

On the basis of psychiatric interviews with 69 former prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, this paper describes the circumstances, motives, and ways of committing suicide in the camp. The interview made it clear that thousands of prisoners perished by suicide. The number of committed suicides was larger than that of attempted suicides. The most frequent types of suicide victims were prisoners of Jewish descent, foreigners, white-collar workers, and old people. The most common motives of suicides were depressive reactions; anxiety; somatic illnesses; the threat of death; emotional motives; loss of emotional support; beatings and tortures; and patriotic and altruistic motives. The most common methods of committing suicide were flinging oneself onto the electrified wires surrounding the camp, hanging, poisoning, cutting one's veins, and drowning. There were also cases of mass suicides, chiefly in the women's camp. Suicides committed from patriotic or altruistic motives testified to the fact that human beings were able to preserve their dignity even in the face of death.

Study of deaths by suicide of homosexual prisoners in Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp

“…The data shows that the majority of suicides were committed in the first years of imprisonments, which is in agreement with other authors [37]. Almost 30% committed suicide during the first days, which is in agreement with those authors who attribute this high rate to initial shock of imprisonment [38].…”

“…They were isolated there to avoid “homosexuality propagation” and they were separated from the rest of the camp by a wall (Sachsenhausen concentration camp web page; available at URL http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/index.htm). One inmate committed suicide when he was moved to the punishment block (Block 11): the conditions in this block were extremely hard [47], so that this suicide can be explained by fear or consequence of torture reported by some authors [37, 48]. From our data, we cannot conclude that suicides could have seasonal variation or possible contagion effects, including suicide of celebrities (see O'Montis), as some authors have recently found [49].…”

“…These methods require more reflexion, and require isolated places [52, 53]. Some authors asses that the most common way of suicide was flinging oneself onto the wires [37], but they are based on witness reports and the testimonies could be influenced by the fact that death by flinging onto the electrified fence is more shocking than death by hanging in which the inmate commits suicide in a lonely place. Another important factor is that inmates killed on the fences or shot by guards would be classified as “killed in an escape attempt” instead of suicide.…”

Suicide in Inmates in Nazis and Soviet Concentration Camps: Historical Overview and Critique

“…Some authors have reported suicides in Nazi KL based on psychiatric interviews with the former prisoners. They described suicide as more frequent in those inmates who suffered the cruelest abuse, suffering from infectious diseases, forced to participate in medical experiments, during periods of mass extermination, and generally in autumn and winter ( 36 ). Some authors argue that suicides were extremely high in Nazi KL based on witness testimonies ( 2 , 15 , 37 – 40 ).…”

Unusual Torture Methods and Mass Murders Applied by a Terror Organization

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Massacres and serial murders by schizoid characters in civilian life or in wars are the results of social rebellions, insanity, or terrorist activities. 6 -9 The latter of these, terrorism, is still one of the biggest threats to democratic societies all over the world.…”