April 1945: The final days of World War II in Europe. Nazi Germany is teetering as Western Allies move in across the Rhine and the Soviet Red Army sweeps into the country from the east, with stories of its war atrocities preceding it.

On April 30, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler commits suicide, putting a bullet to his head. Other high-ranking Nazi leaders do the same. But they aren't the only ones to take their own lives. By May 8, the day Nazi Germany unconditionally surrenders, thousands of ordinary German men, women and children had killed themselves in a national wave of suicides.

It's a story that German author and documentary historian Florian Huber detailed in his bestselling 2015 German-language book, which was released Thursday in English as Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945 by British publisher Allen Lane. The translation, by Imogen Taylor, was also released by Text Publishing in Australia one month ago.

The Soviet Red Army captured the German Reichtags building (above) and the capital on May 2, 1945

"What drove whole families, who in many cases had already withstood years of deprivation, aerial bombing and deaths in battle, to do this?" Allen Lane's description of the book asks. This is the question that Huber sets out to answer through eyewitness testimony and archival research.

Germany's biggest mass suicide

The book zooms in on the small northeastern German town of Demmin, where up to 1,000 Germans, out of a population of roughly 15,000, killed themselves — including children whose parents admonished them to do so. Some parents even took the lives of their own children before killing themselves.

"Over years, people had been indoctrinated by German propaganda about what was bound to happen should the [Soviet] enemy set foot on German soil," Huber said in a 2015 interview with DW. Rumors of pillaging, rape, and barbaric disfiguration committed by the Red Army terrified the German populace.

"People believed that the only way to escape these horrors was to commit suicide," the author added. Drownings, shootings, hangings and ingesting poison were the common means of taking one's life.

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Remembering liberation Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial On April 29, 1945, US soldiers liberated the concentration camp near Munich. It wasn't until 1965 that a memorial was built on the site. Commemorating the victims of Nazi atrocities, this sculpture by Jewish artist Nandor Glid was set up in the middle of the former Appelplatz in 1968. The Holocaust survivor had also lost many family members to concentration camps.

Remembering liberation Battle of Hürtgen Forest US forces fought several fierce battles against the German Wehrmacht in Hürtigen Forest near Aachen. Lasting several months from fall 1944 until early 1945, the battles would also be remembered as some of the longest and most significant fought on German soil. Hürtigen Forest is now part of the "Liberation Route Europe," a remembrance trail along the advance of the Western Allied forces.

Remembering liberation Bridge at Remagen Surprised it was still standing, US forces captured the railway bridge at Remagen, south of Cologne, on March 7, 1945. Thousands of US soldiers were able to cross the Rhine for the first time in what became known as the "Miracle of Remagen." German bombing runs eventually led to the bridge’s collapse 10 days after it was captured. Today there is a peace museum in the remains of the bridge towers.

Remembering liberation Reichswald Forest War Cemetery While the US forces generally transported their fallen soldiers back to America, the British soldiers who died found their final resting place in 15 cemeteries in Germany. The biggest of these is the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Reichswald, close to the Dutch border. Amongst the 7,654 dead there are some 4,000 pilots and crews of fighter planes, of whom many were Canadian.

Remembering liberation Seelow Heights Memorial In the east, the Soviet Red Army launched the last big offensive on April 16, 1945. The Battle of the Seelow Heights began at dawn with bombardments to aid the push towards Berlin. Some 900,000 Soviet soldiers faced 90,000 Wehrmacht soldiers. The largest World War II battle on German soil - as well as the thousands of dead that resulted from it - are commemorated by the memorial there today.

Remembering liberation Elbe Day in Torgau Soviet and US forces meet for the first time on German soil in Torgau on the Elbe River on April 25, 1945. The event effectively closed the gap between Eastern and Western fronts. The war's end moved closer and the soldiers' handshake in Torgau became an iconic image. The meeting of Allied troops is remembered every year on Elbe Day - but in 2020 that has been cancelled due the coronavirus crisis.

Remembering liberation German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst German armed forces signed the unconditional surrender in the night of May 8-9, 1945, in the officers' mess in Berlin-Karlhorst. Today the original Act of Surrender, which was written in English, German and Russian, is the main feature in the museum's surrender room. Another permanent exhibition focuses on the Nazi war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, which began in 1941.

Remembering liberation Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park The sheer size of the memorial in Treptower Park is impressive. The memorial, including the military cemetery, covers an area of some 100,000 square meters. It was built after the Second World War to commemorate the Red Army soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin. A pair of stylized Soviet flags made of red granite serves as the portal to the memorial.

Remembering liberation Potsdam conference in Cecilienhof Palace After Nazi Germany's surrender, the heads of government from the three main Allied forces met at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam in the summer of 1945. Joseph Stalin, Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill led the delegations at what became known as the Potsdam Conference, called to establish post-war order in Europe. It ultimately decided on the division of Germany into four occupation zones.

Remembering liberation Allied Museum Berlin was also divided into four sectors. The district Zehlendorf became the American sector. Here the former US Army cinema "Outpost" has been turned into part of the Allied Museum. It documents the political history and the military commitments of the Western Allies in Berlin - detailing the occupation of West Berlin in 1945, the airlift to the city and the withdrawal of US troops in 1994.

Remembering liberation Schönhausen Palace in Berlin This Prussian Baroque palace was the location of the "Two Plus Four Agreement" talks in 1990 among both Germanys and the powers that occupied Germany at the end of the war: the USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The four powers renounced all rights they held in Germany, paving the way for German Unification. Several plaques commemorate that this is where World War II finally ended. Author: Frederike Müller (sc)



While Demmin is considered to be the largest mass suicide in German history, Huber underlines that the town was not a singular case, and that fear and panic was not limited to the Soviet Army's advance.

"Many people felt a sense of guilt and entanglement. They were afraid of what might come next. Many could not even imagine what the world might be like after these twelve years in a state of emergency," he said. "This sense of being doomed was not limited to the East German population. It prevailed throughout the country … Entire families committed suicide all over Germany."

Taboo under communism

While the English publishers have described the book as a "suppressed" story and "one of the last untold stories of the Third Reich," the British daily The Guardian pointed out that European historian Christian Goeschel explored the topic in his 2009 book Suicide in Nazi Germany.

In Demmin's cemetary stands a monument to those who committed mass suicide at the end of WWII. The topic was taboo and suppressed during the GDR years.

But Huber explained in 2015 — when his book was originally published — that the topic was taboo in Germany for so long because, in his estimation, the communist former GDR took a hardline stance against anything casting a bad light on the Soviet Union and its Red Army.

Moreover, many of those who were liberated from Nazi rule after the war saw this time as one of relief, and sometimes celebration. "But what many others saw was quite the opposite," Huber said. "So much so that they believed they had no choice but to kill themselves."

Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945 by Florian Huber (translated by Imogen Taylor) is available starting July 4 from Allen Lane publishers.

DW often elects either not to report on suicide, or to report only in brief, because there are indiciations that some forms of journalism concerning suicide can prompt others to imitate the acts. If you are suffering from serious emotional strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information on where to find such help, no matter where you live in the world, at this website: https://www.befrienders.org/ .