Suicides

[Dieter Zinke]

My final observation:
Nowadays the psychiatry is investigating with scientific methods, the philosophy (with the theories) remains with people of a different faith

Dieter Z.

[Max Williams]

The first photo I posted in this thread has prompted much discussion in the past over the identity of the family in Leipzig. Various suggestions have been put forward, such as the city mayor, SS-Gruppenführer Alfred Freyberg. Although there is some suggestion that Freyberg committed suicide with his family in his office, the correct identity in this particular photo is Dr. Kurt Lisso, the Leipzig city treasurer, his wife and 20 year old daughter. Here is another photo of the scene, taken just before the other. (Note that the body of Lisso was moved up onto his desk to accommodate a better angle for the photographer to shoot at floor level in the first posted photo.) The Lisso family all took poison, rather than fall into the hands of the American troops overrunning the city. Frau Lisso was a Red Cross nurse and her armband and cap can be clearly seen in this image. A suicide letter can also be seen on the carpet, suitably placed so that it would be found easily. The box container for the cyanide capsules is also evident at the edge of the desk (to Lisso's right) above the desk cupboard where it had been securely stored.
(Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, the first female war correspondent.)
Max.

[mty]

Since the photo was taken by an Allied war correspondent as you stated, the letter must have been intact at least immediately after the photos were taken. What happened to it? Was it's content ever recorded and published?

[Penn44]

that time in Germany, suicide was a kind of honor, never a shame or run away.
Rod

What is your source for this claim?

Certainly Catholic Germans in particular frowned upon it.

Penn44

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[Penn44]

Always a silent suicidality is existing, frequently unnoticeable for the outer world. Look for example at the biography of Hermann Göring. He had periods of clinical depressions with retreat to Karinhall or the heather of Rominten for weeks. His suicide was not a triumph, but a logical consequence - or the clinical end - of an chronical mental disorder. ..

Dieter Zinke

Göring's suicide was not the result of a "chronic mental disorder," but was an attempt to escape the hangman's noose.

Penn44

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[mulisch]

Hello Max,

I think there is as you stated no doubt about the identity of this family, but i don't think that the paper on the carpet is a suicide letter. It looks more like a newspaper or magazine to me according to its size.

Kind regards,

Mulisch