Holocaust Suicides

Something which maybe a controversial topic is suicide. However in the context of the Holocaust I believe it is an important subject to address.

I have said this before that I don’t believe that number of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, is a correct number. I believe it to be much higher.

I was looking at some figures of deaths in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of the Nazis of the Netherlands. The Dutch army capitulated on May 14,1940. On that same day and the following days a great number of Dutch Jews committed suicide. Sometimes it would be complete families that would take their own lives, or that by the hand of parents. This was not because they were ill but because they feared that the fate that awaited them would be worse then death.

These numbers are not included in the official Holocaust numbers.

Below is a list of some of those who saw no other way out then to take their own lives and sometimes that of their children too. May they never be forgotten. #WEREMEMBER

Eduard Wiener, wife Henriette van Gigch and son Eduard.

Zofja Josefsberg

Leonard Polak Daniels

Emanuel Boekman and wife Jansje Boekman-Nerden

Bruno Asch

Bernard Aa and his wife Dina van der Kar and his parents , Hermanus Aa and Sara Klok.

Walter Maijer,his wife Anneliese Maijer-Cohen and 4 year old daughter Marianne Yvonne Maijer

Eduard Henri Benjamin van Lier

Abraham Leviticus

Jacob Benjamin Gersons and his wife Sientje Gersons-van der Kous

Andries de Metz

Isaac van Loon

Elkan Sanders, his wife Betsy Cornelia Sanders-Kooperberg and 2 year old daughter Els Sanders.

Abraham Delmonte

Jacob Keesing and his wife Esperance Keesing-Peekel

Jacob van Gelderen, his wife Alexandrina van Gelderen-de Vries, his son Johan van Gelderen, daughter Margreet van Gelderen

Mozes de Haas.

There were many more but my heart can’t take looking any more of these poor souls.

It is just so hard to fathom the desperation and the lack of hope, that they resorted to such a tragic measure. This is just a snap shot from one country, I am sure the Jews in the Netherlands were not the only ones. These tragedies must have been repeated throughout occupied Europe.

The bigger tragedy is that they probably would have been murdered either way. Approximately 75% of the Dutch Jewish citizens were murdered.

#REMEMBERTHEM