Searching for motives: Suicides of doctors and dentists in the Third Reich and the postwar period, 1933–1949

The criminal practices of National Socialism not only led to millions of murders, but also to increased suicide rates. The present study examines a specific aspect of this phenomenon: the suicides and corresponding motives of 275 German doctors and dentists in the period from 1933 to 1949. The analysis is based on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources. Most suicides were due to National Socialist repression, with peaks in 1938 and 1942. One fifth of the cases were among National Socialist perpetrators, with a peak of those suicides occurring in 1945. The motives for suicide ranged from despair to a lack of career prospects to a final act of self-determination and political opposition; many of the doctors experienced or expected a social downfall before attempting suicide.