Suicides of German citizens of Wroclaw serving in the army during World War II

Abstract

On the basis of the data from the archive of the Register Office in Wroclaw it has been established that from 1 September 1939 to 31 December 1944 as many as 94 citizens serving in the army (64 soldiers, 22 non-commissioned officers, and 8 officers) had committed suicide. They were most often men aged 21 – 30, married, of evangelical denomination. The suicides had been committed on the whole territory of occupied Europe, but most frequently on the eastern front. Little is known about the methods of self-destruction, because this data was usually classified. The soldiers had most probably used guns for suicides.