From Exclusion, Deprivation and Persecution to Suicide

Analyzing Data on Suicides of Jews in Vienna, 1938-1945

Authors

  • Wolfgang Schellenbacher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0122/art_wsch01

Keywords:

Suicide, Holocaust, Vienna, mass transportation

Abstract

Between 1938 and 1945 at least 1100 Jews in Vienna died by suicide in the face of exclusion, deprivation and persecution. This article examines data put together for a symposium and commemoration ceremony from the databases of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance on suicides in Vienna. Suicides peaked after the “Anschluss” of Austria in March 1938, but also increased during the November pogrom and at times when people feared losing their housing. While research had already suggested a connection between the mass transports from Vienna between autumn 1941 and autumn 1942, the data allows an in depth-analysis of the correlation between transports and suicides and can demonstrate this on the level of individual transports leaving Vienna. Additionally, the article looks into the average age, the types of suicides and into demographic aspects, such as differences according to gender.

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Published

2022-06-19

How to Cite

Schellenbacher, Wolfgang. 2022. “From Exclusion, Deprivation and Persecution to Suicide: Analyzing Data on Suicides of Jews in Vienna, 1938-1945”. S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 9 (1):94-108. https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0122/art_wsch01.