Mass suicides in Nazi Germany

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During the final weeks of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe, many civilians, government officials, and military personnel throughout Germany and German-occupied Europe committed suicide. In addition to Adolf Hitler and many high-ranking Nazi officials like Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and Philipp Bouhler, others chose suicide rather than accept the defeat of Germany. Motivating or triggering factors included fears of execution for Nazi war crimes or reprisals and atrocities by the Allies and the Soviets, Nazi propaganda glorifying suicide as preferable to defeat, and despondency after Hitler's suicide. For example, in May 1945, up to 1,000 people killed themselves in a mass suicide in the German town of Demmin, before and after the entry of the Red Army. In Berlin alone more than 7,000 suicides were reported in 1945. Periods of suicides have been identified between January and May 1945 when thousands of German people took their own lives. Life magazine reported that: "In the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image J. M. Heslop, Technician Fifth Grade, US Army Signal Corps, Public domain