Jews, Suicide, and the Holocaust

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.