The toll of suicides of German Jews, men of professions and servants of the State who face starvation and disgrace as a result of the Nazis’ economic proscription, continues unabated.
In Berlin, one Kurt Lange, a Jewish lawyer, drowned himself in the Wannsee, a lake in the suburban section, and Heyman, the manager of a Jewish store, the Gladbach Department Store, took poison with his wife.
From Heidelberg, the J.T.A. learns of the tragic suicide of Bettman, a young Jewish judge of great promise who shot himself in the Jewish cemetery, leaving a note to the effect that since he was not to be permitted to prove his love to the Fatherland by working for it, his life lacked meaning, that he hoped his sacrifice would not be in vain and that he dies disappointed, but without bitterness. He had returned home, an ostracized judge, to find Nazi storm troops preventing patients from entering his father’s consulting room.
Among the suicides reported today which may be laid at the door of the Nazi persecutions is that of Alexis Holleschossen, a Jewish judge of Berlin, who shot himself after his expulsion from office, realizing the impossibility of obtaining employment, or adjusting himself to another type of work.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
