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

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.

Mortality of the Iranian ex-prisoners of war in Iraqi detention camps (1980-1990).

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to determine the rate and cause of the mortality of the Iranian ex-prisoners of war in Iraqi detention camps during a ten- year period (1980 - 1990) according to the documented reports. METHODS: The information extracted from the documented death certifications that have been provided by the Iraqi authorities and the Red Cross delegation. RESULTS: At least a total of 564 Iranian prisoners of war died due to the various reasons in Iraqi detention camps that show a mortality rate of 1.4% (564/40,000). The mean captivity-to-death interval was 440 (from one to 3582) days and the registered prisoners had more duration of captivity than the unregistered (1285 vs. 215 days, P= 0.001). The median and mean ages of the individuals at the time of death were 22 and 26.4+/-13 years, respectively. The mean age of the civilians was higher than the others (45.3 vs. 23.7, P=0.0001). The cause of death was not clear for 44.3% of the individuals but among the others, infectious diseases (such as dysentery, sepsis, and meningitis) and injuries (resulting from war injuries and/or torture by Iraqi forces) were the main causes of death with 15.4% and 15.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: It seems that the mortality of the Iranian ex-prisoners of war in Iraq is more than previously reported. Therefore, more investigation is recommended to determine the exact number of the Iranian prisoners who died in Iraq.

Suicide in the Soviet Gulag camps.

About 18 million Soviet citizens passed through the Gulag system of labor and concentration camps between 1929 and 1953. Based upon literary evidence from camp survivors and published documents, the authors present reports of attempted suicide and completed suicide, along with a discussion of whether suicide in Gulag camps was a frequent or rare behavior. Similar to reports from the Nazi concentration camps during WWII the existence of Muselmänner or dokhodyagi, the dying prisoners emaciated by hunger, sometimes considered as suicides, has been identified among the Gulag inmates. Also, the incidence and methods of self-mutilation among the camp inmates are discussed.

Late-onset schizophrenia in child survivors of the holocaust.

According to the stress diathesis model, the probability of psychosis is increased in high-risk groups, a vulnerable one being the Holocaust child survivors. This study was conducted to inquire into the long-term effects of their Holocaust experience. We concentrated on a possible association between the onset of schizophrenia and the degree of persecution. Ninety-three medical files of Holocaust child survivors were recruited from sociomedical expert reports of the Restitution Office in Germany. The onset of schizophrenia was used as dependent variable in a categorical regression model. Regarding schizophrenia, exclusively late-onset schizophrenia could be diagnosed in our sample. Schizophrenia was significantly associated with the highest category of persecution (Fisher exact test, p < 0.001). In the categorical regression model, the category of persecution was a significant coefficient, only (F = 23.9, p < 0.001). The strong association between late onset of schizophrenia and the degree of persecution suggest an influence of stress exposure.

The mortality of Allied prisoners of war and Belgian civilian deportees in German custody during the First World War: a reappraisal of the effects of forced labour.

Influenced by results for the Second World War, recent research on forced labour in Imperial Germany during the Great War has stressed continuities of racial discrimination against East European workers. While agreeing that prisoners of war (POWs) from Russia were discriminated against, I reject the view that this led to a significantly worse mortality regime for the group as a whole. Using the same raw data, I calculate annual rates which show that the mortality of POWs from Russia was only slightly higher than that of French and Belgian POWs but much lower than that of British and Italian POWs and of Belgian civilian deportees. I argue that this unexpected outcome is explained by the fact that the POWs who came early into German captivity faced a lower risk of being employed in urban industrial areas, with their much more unfavourable food and disease environment.

Too hard to face.

While the Holocaust is often placed at the genesis of bioethics, this relatively young field has not yet seriously explored the conduct of German scientists and physicians involved in the human subjects experiments of the Holocaust. We comfort ourselves with the beliefs that the individuals involved in the events of the Holocaust were mad or evil and unlike other scientists and physicians. Yet the evidence is that these professionals were educated and capable members of a technologically sophisticated society who believed they were somehow behaving morally within the context of their social-political situation. The first defendants at Nuremberg were physicians and public health officials. An examination of the trial transcripts provides data about what motivated these medical scientists to engage in human experimentation and mass murder and the extent to which ethics rationales were given for unparalleled moral wrong-doing in biomedicine. Bioethics must still address these beliefs and subject them to close scrutiny.

[Morbidity in the concentration camps of the Third Reich].

Life in the concentration camps of the Third Reich was like living on another planet. The prisoners, stripped of all rights, experienced constant humiliation, uncertain survival and endless terror. Living conditions were harsh, characterized by crowding, poor sanitation and personal hygiene, lack of proper clothing and heating. The days began early with long marches and slave labor. Sleep was short and interrupted, and fatigue was constant and severe. Above all hoovered the dark cloud of ever-present famine. The prisoners were given about a fourth of the daily calorie requirements, and the food lacked vital components such as vitamins and other essential ingredients. The psychological stress was extreme, yet morbidity and mortality were mainly due to infections, injuries and hunger. Lice, scabies and other skin diseases were common. Typhus fever was ever-present, both endemic and epidemic, with a fatal outcome. Many suffered from tuberculosis, typhoid, dysentery, pneumonia and other infections diseases. Injuries were common, caused by beating, punitive whiplashing and other forms of physical abuse, gunshot wounds and dog-bites. Skull injuries with brain contusions and hemorrhages were prevalent, as well as fractured limbs, ribs and pelvic bones. Blunt injuries to chest and abdomen often had fatal outcomes due to the perforation of viscera and peritonitis or as a result of massive hemorrhage from ruptured blood vessels. The harsh winters were marked by frozen gangrenous limbs and hypothermia. Yet, the most ominous condition was the "hunger disease" with its multiple clinical expressions which, in their extreme form, led to the emaciated "musleman" and eventual death.