Suicide at the Fall of Nazi Germany

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

There is almost no end to the dark secrets that emerge from the smashed ruins of 1945 Europe. Dr Florian Huber has spent years researching the fascinating story of the epidemic of suicide that spread through Germany as they faced certain defeat in 1945. Some people committed suicide after suffering atrocities at the hands of the soviets, others because of the trauma of allied bombing and the destruction of the conflict around them. But many did so because they did not wish to live in a world without Nazism. Dr Huber has even interviewed people whose parents tried to kill them as young children. It is a dark secret in modern German society and his book provoked an outpouring of similar stories when it was published.

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0:00.0	Hello History Hit listeners, as you are listening to this right now at this exact second I am
0:05.8	currently on an epic cross-country road trip of England. 600 miles and 1 million years of history
0:14.4	from the first humans through to Stonehenge, Dovercastle, Hastings up to Ironbridge in the
0:19.3	Black Country and to the northeast where I'm visiting a Cold War bunker in York.
0:25.0	I want to hear from you. I want to do more stops. Tell me when I should stop. Any local tips or
0:29.8	hints that you want to share or you want to see me report on on my social media channels and Twitter
0:34.1	and Instagram etc. just send me a message ds.hh at historyhit.com. That's delta Sierra.
0:41.4	. hotel hotel at historyhit.com or tweet me at the History Guy. You can keep up with the road trip
0:47.4	this week on Instagram and Twitter at the History Guy on both and then you can hear the whole thing as a
0:52.1	podcast series next week. Thanks and enjoy this episode.
1:02.3	Hi everybody, welcome to Dance Noes History Hit. This week we've been talking about
1:06.0	Dresden. It's the 75th anniversary of the Fire Bombing of Dresden, the obliteration of that beautiful
1:10.9	city that led to the death of perhaps 25,000, perhaps more people. I've seen active violence on
1:17.9	behalf of the Allies that was instantly controversial. Churchill had appeared to have had regrets about.
1:24.4	This podcast is about another piece of German history from 75 years ago. A very remarkable,
1:29.2	a very disturbing story. The suicide epidemic that accompanied the fall of Nazi Germany 75 years
1:34.8	ago this spring. Dr. Florian Hubert has been working on this subject, interviewing people who
1:41.1	remember their neighbors, their family members, their friends committing suicide in the spring of
1:46.0	1945. Some because of the atrocities they suffered at the hands of advancing red army soldiers for
1:52.0	example, the extraordinary trauma of sexual and physical violence. But many of the people he talked to
1:58.2	said they remember people committing suicide for ideological reasons because they couldn't bear
2:02.8	to live in a world without Nazism. He is even interviewed young people whose parents tried to kill them
	...

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