Source: H.D. Fliedner, ed., Die Judenverfolgung in Mannheim 1933-1945 (Stuttgart 1971), p. 79, and Konrad Kwiet, ΓÇ£Suicide in the Jewish Community,ΓÇ¥ Leo Baeck Year Book (1984), p. 167.
From a Report prepared by the Mannheim Community: Source: H.D. Fliedner, ed., Die Judenverfolgung in Mannheim 1933-1945 (ΓÇ£The Persecution of the Jews in Mannheim 1933-1945ΓÇ¥), II, (Stuttgart 1971), p. 79.
…The arrest and information of the deportation was a terrible experience for those concerned. It was inevitable that some souls could not face this trial. There were several cases of suicide and attempted suicide in the course of the first hours of the Aktion . In Mannheim (with 2,500 deportees) there were about 10 cases, and as many in Baden-Baden (with scarcely 100 members of the community). These cases of suicide - there were others during the journey - involved almost exclusively Jews who had moved far from Judaism, had left the community or were baptised. The fate of these people was tragic: the road into exile forced them back (to Judaism, to being a Jew) where their own efforts had taken them away. They no longer wanted to be Jews and now were forced to be Jews….
Letter left behind by a woman who committed suicide: Source : Konrad Kwiet, ΓÇ£Suicide in the Jewish Community,ΓÇ¥ Leo Baeck Year Book (1984), p. 167.
I am ending my life…of my own free will. It is too much to bear for an eighty-year-old person … I have had the tablets for many years. I had them already when my daughter took her own life, and I should have gone with her…. I wish to thank the house where I was looked after…. They were caring and kind to me, but they were powerless against the incitement campaign. That I cannot see my children again makes this step harder for me, but they will understand….
