Jews, Suicide, and the Holocaust

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-138-58975-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Second World War History

This accessible study examines the Holocaust’s “forgotten victims” – Jews and other victims who suicided from 1939 to 1945. Using diaries, survivor memoirs, and survivor interviews, the manuscript places suicide victims and their experiences into the traditional Holocaust narrative.

From considering what “suicide” means in the Holocaust context to considerations about suicide as resistance to Nazi persecution and murder, this study examines suicide in the Warsaw Ghetto and Nazi camps, especially Auschwitz. This study also explores the phenomenon from the standpoint of family and community relationships, motivations, and witness responses and attitudes to suicides. Close study of suicide among Holocaust victims can provide insights into how Jews experienced life and death under Nazi persecution. Readers will discover what led some ghetto inhabitants and camp prisoners to suicide and read about Jews who considered suicide in camps like Auschwitz and what prevented them from suiciding.

Too few scholars have examined suicide among Jews during the Holocaust. This study hopes to bring focus to the topic and encourage further discussion among historians, sociologists, philosophers, literary scholars, students, and general audiences.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mengerink, Mark A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte Deutsche Geschichte: Holocaust
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte des Judentums (Diaspora)
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Besondere Kriege und Kampagnen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1. Suicide in the Holocaust Context: Some Considerations 2. Suicide in the Life and Death of the Warsaw Ghetto 3. “I had come to the end of my rope:” Suicide Ideation in Nazi Camps 4. Suicide in Auschwitz 5. By Their Own Hand: Suicide as Resistance to Nazi Persecution? 6. “Whatever his motives and intention, his death did not help us:” Jewish Attitudes Toward Holocaust Suicides. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Mark A. Mengerink is Associate Professor of History at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. His research interests include suicide and the Holocaust, how studying past atrocities impacts scholars’ mental health, and how extreme metal music bands represent history in their music and lyrics.