ANU Historian comments on public suicide

ANU Historian comments on public suicide
Monday 27 May 2013

An interview with Dr Christian Goeschel, Lecturer, School of History at ANU, has appeared in the renowned Swiss broadsheet, Tagaesanzeiger. Dr Goeschel's areas of interest include Modern European History, Modern German History, Modern Italian History; Social and Cultural History and History of the Holocaust.  Dr Goeschel's views were sought following the very public suicide of Dominique Venner, a seventy-eight year old French Historian and extreme right wing nationalist.

Dr Goeschel's is no stranger to the topic, his book "Suicide in Nazi Germany", published in 2009, and referenced in the Tagaesanzeiger article,  looks at the suicides of both Nazis and ordinary people in Germany between 1918 and 1945, from the end of World War I until the end of World War II, including the mass suicides of German Jews during the Holocaust. He shows how suicides among different population groups, including supporters, opponents, and victims of the regime, responded to the social, cultural, economic and, political context of the time. He also analyses changes and continuities in individual and societal responses to suicide over time, especially with regard to the Weimar Republic and the post-1945 era.

The original article (not translated) is available here

 

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