Study of Deaths by Suicide in the Soviet Special Camp Number 7 (Sachsenhausen), 1945–1950

Abstract

After World War II, Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp (Oranienburg) was administered until the spring of 1950 by Soviet occupation forces (Special Camp Number 7) and used mainly for political prisoners. Our study analyzes suicides in this camp during the Soviet period. Data was collected from the archives of Sachsenhausen Memorial, Special Camp Collection. Original documents containing certificates or autopsy reports of prisoners who committing suicide were reviewed. In this period, authorities registered 17 suicides. The age of suicides was between 19 and 64 years. The most frequent cause of imprisonment was Blockleiter (Kapo in Nazi period, n = 4), Mitarbeiter Gestapo (member of the Gestapo, n = 3) and Wehrmacht (military, n = 3). Hanging was the most frequent method of suicide. The average time spent in the camp until suicide was 715 days. The number of recorded suicides under Soviet control is considerably lower (calculated rate 2.8/10,000 per year) than under Nazi control (calculated rate 11/10,000 per year). This could be due to comparably more favorable conditions for prisoners and the abolishment of the death penalty during this period. Possible motives for suicides include feelings of guilt for crimes committed, fear of punishment and a misguided understanding of honor on the eve of criminal trials.

The Psychiatric Station in the Soviet Special Camp at Buchenwald

“…The cases noted at this time included less severe forms of psychiatric illness than those noted before January of the year. Suicide was not common in the Soviet Special Camp at Buchenwald, as in other Soviet Special camps, such as Sachsenhausen (7), and the few reported cases occurred in places out of the barracks and none in the Psychiatric Station (Arkiv der Gedenkstatte Buchenwald).…”

Study of deaths by suicide of homosexual prisoners in Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp

“…Camp experience for homosexual prisoners was especially harrowing, because of the special repression suffered by this group. We have found a higher number of suicides in this camp when compared to the general prisoner population at Sachsenhausen under Nazi control and under Soviet rule [ 21 ]. The number is also higher than available rates of suicides of prisoners classified as homosexuals at Buchenwald, where the conditions were comparably less atrocious.…”

“…Research suggests that the rate of suicides committed by homosexuals is higher than in the population at large and that these rates are increased because of situations of social exclusion [ 2 , 20 ]. We consider how this hypothesis may translate to an especially dramatic situation of repression in concentration camps, where the incidence of suicides has been described as 10–30 times higher than in the general public in Germany at the time [ 21 , 22 ]. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the suicide rate among men imprisoned as “homosexuals” in Sachsenhausen was higher than among the general prisoner population of the camp [ 23 ].…”