Suicide under the Nazi-regime: A Case-control Study among Amsterdam Jews

Abstract

Objective: Jewish suicides increased heavily under Nazi-rule. This research investigated risk factors for dying from suicide according to sociodemographic characteristics, local context, and time periods. Methods: Nazi-registration of Amsterdam residents of Jewish origin in 1941 linked to death and suicide lists. The added suicides after the Nazi-invasion (1940, n = 115) and the suicides when deportation trains ran (1942/1943, n = 182) were each matched to 25 controls using sex and age. Suicide was compared across migrant, occupational, marital, and religious status and neighborhood religiosity. Conditional logistic regression was applied, stratified by time period. Results: In 1940, immigrant (cf. native born, odds ratio (OR) 1.89, 95%CI 1.21–2.96, p =.005) and married Jews (cf. previously married) showed higher suicide risk; members of Israelite Congregations (cf. nonmembers, OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.22–0.56, p