On 1 May 1945, hundreds of people killed themselves in the town of Demmin, in the Province of Pomerania (now in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Germany. Although death toll estimates vary, it is acknowledged to be the largest mass suicide ever recorded in Germany. The suicide was part of a mass suicide wave amongst the population of Nazi Germany.
Nazi officials, the police, the Wehrmacht, and many citizens had left the town before the arrival of the Red Army, while thousands of refugees from the East had also taken refuge in Demmin. Three Soviet negotiators were shot prior to the Soviet advance into Demmin and Hitler Youth, amongst others, fired on Soviet soldiers once inside the town. The retreating Wehrmacht had blown up the bridges over the Peene and Tollense rivers, which enclosed the town to the north, west, and south, thus blocking the Red Army's advance and trapping the remaining civilians. The Soviet units looted and burned down the town, and committed rapes and executions.
Numerous inhabitants and refugees then killed themselves, with many families doing so together. Methods of suicides included drowning in the rivers, hanging, wrist-cutting, and shooting. Most bodies were buried in mass graves, and after the war, discussion of the mass suicide was taboo under the East German Communist government.
Background
Demmin was a stronghold of the nationalistic organisations DNVP and Der Stahlhelm in the Weimar Republic. Before 1933, there were boycotts of Jewish businesses, which drove away most of the Jews. The synagogue was sold in June 1938 to a furniture company, which is why it survives as a building today. In the last national elections to the Reichstag on 5 March 1933, the Nazi Party won 53.7 percent of votes in Demmin. During the Kristallnacht thousands gathered in the square in anti-Semitic demonstration.Artikel Demmin in: Irene Diekmann (Hg.), Wegweiser durch das jüdische Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Potsdam 1998, S. 99 ff, bes. S. 111 f
During the last weeks of World War II, tens of thousands of Germans killed themselves, especially in territories occupied by the Red Army. The German historian Udo Grashhoff and the German author Kurt Bauer wrote that the suicides occurred in two stages: in a first wave before the Red Army's arrival, in part due to a "fear of the Russians" spread by Nazi propaganda, Quote: "Es handelte sich dabei zum Teil um eine Panikreaktion aus einer von der nationalsozialistischen Propaganda geschürten Angst vor den Russen; die Selbsttötungswellen ereigneten sich aber zumeist in zwei Phasen. Den ersten von Angst und Panik bestimmten Selbsttötungen folgte in vielen Orten eine zweite Selbsttötungswelle, nachdem es zu Hinrichtungen, Plünderungen und massenhaften Vergewaltigungen durch die Besatzer gekommen war. Im mecklenburgischen Demmin zum Beispiel nahmen sich innerhalb von einer Woche von ca. 15000 Einwohnern etwa 700 das Leben. [...] 15: Schätzungen der Zahl der Selbsttötungen reichen von 700 bis 1200. Vgl Norbert Buske, Das Kriegsende in Demmin, Schwerin 1995, S. 44f." Translation: In part, this was a panic reaction, out of a fear of the Russians, fuelled by Nazi propaganda; For the most part, the suicides occurred in two waves. The first suicides, which were sparked by fear and panic, were, in many places, followed by a second wave of suicides, after executions, looting and mass rapes had occurred. For example, in the course of one week, some 700 of 15,000 inhabitants killed themselves in the Mecklenburgian town of Demmin. [...] 15: Estimates of the number of suicides range from 700 to 1,200. Cf. Norbert Buske (1995), Das Kriegsende in Demmin, Schwerin, pp. 44–45. and – as in Demmin – in a second wave after the Red Army's arrival, triggered by executions, looting, and mass rapes committed by Soviet soldiers. Quote: "Im Anschluß an die Kampfhandlungen kam es immer wieder zu Massakern an der Zivilbevölkerung und an Wehrmachtssoldaten, die sich ergeben hatten. Ausgedehnte Plünderungen und Raubzüge waren alltägliche Begleiterscheinungen des Vormarsches der Roten Armee. Zum kollektiven Trauma wurden die massrenhaften Vergewaltigungen deutscher Frauen durch die russische Soldateska. [...] Von zwei Millionen Vergewaltigungsopfern in den von der Roten Armee besetzten deutschen Gebieten ist in der Literatur die Rede. Jede zehnte Frau dürfte an den Folgen der Massenvergewaltigungen gestorben sein oder anschließend Suizid verübt haben. Massenselbsttötungen von Menschen, die der Roten Armee nicht hatten entkommen können, waren ein weiteres, erschreckendes Phänomen in der Kriegsendphase. In der vorpommerschen Kleinstadt Demmin verübten in den ersten Maitagen 1945 in einer Massenpsychose an die 1000 Menschen Selbstmord, zumeist durch Ertränken." Translation: After the fighting, there were repeated massacres of civilians and Wehrmacht soldiers who had surrendered. Extensive looting and raids were every-day occurrences during the Red Army's advance. Mass rapes of German women by Russian soldiers became a pervasive trauma. Two million rape victims are mentioned by writings at the time. One in every ten women died of the mass rapes, or else committed suicide afterwards. These mass suicides of people who had not been able to escape the Red Army were another terrifying phenomenon in the final stage of the war. In the small West Pomeranian town of Demmin, some 1,000 people committed suicide during the first days of May 1945, in most cases by drowning themselves.
In 1945, Demmin had between 15,000 and 16,000 inhabitants. Thousands of refugees from the East were also in town, roughly doubling its population. In late April, when the Eastern Front drew closer (Battle of Berlin), women, children, and elderly men were forced to dig a -long anti-tank ditch east of the town. On 28 April, the German flight from the town began: the Nazi party functionaries left in confiscated fire engines, the hospital was evacuated, all the police departed, and a number of civilians fled.
Demmin was reached by spearheads of the Soviet 65th ArmyBatow, P.I.: Операция Одер, Боевые действия 65-й армий в Берлинской операций – апрел – май 1945 года. (Russian), museum Demmin, signature 10.629. and the 1st Guards Tank Corps at noon on 30 April 1945. At the tower of the church, a white banner was hoisted. According to an eyewitness, Soviet negotiators approached the anti-tank ditch and promised to spare Demmin's civilian population from "harassment" and looting in the case of a surrender without fight. This eyewitness was then 19 years old, serving as a German soldier, and lying in the anti-tank ditch. According to him, three shots were fired which left three men dead – one of them a German officer. The remaining Wehrmacht units, belonging to Army Group Weichsel, and some Waffen-SS, retreated through Demmin, and about half an hour after the incident, blew up all bridges leading out of town behind them. By that time, Soviet units were already advancing through Demmin.
The destruction of the bridges prevented the Soviets from advancing westward toward Rostock, which they had planned to reach the same day. It also prevented the flight of the civilian population, who were trapped by the rivers surrounding the town. According to eyewitnesses, some "fanatics", primarily Hitler Youth, shot at the Soviet soldiers, despite several white flags being hoisted on Demmin's buildings. Memorably, a Nazi loyalist schoolteacher, having shot his wife and children, launched a grenade on Soviet soldiers using a panzerfaust, before finally hanging himself. According to the Focus magazine, an eyewitness stated that the first Soviet soldier was shot near the hospital at 11:05 AM by someone running amok, apparently the aforementioned teacher, who had before told a neighbor that he had killed his wife and his children. A third eyewitness confirmed the identity of the gunman in a report by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, while blaming him for causing the Soviet troops to retaliate by plundering and burning the town. Citing Demmin chronicler Hans-Gerhardt Quadt who was 14 at the time: "Es gab Fanatiker, die auf vorbeiziehende Russen schossen, die sich das auch vorgenommen hatten. Ich nehme den Studienrat Gerhard Moldenhauer, der seiner Nachbarin sagte: ‚Ich habe eben meine Familie getötet, jetzt lege ich noch einige Russen um und dann scheide ich selbst aus dem Leben.' Und so hat er das auch gemacht, und hat hiermit eine Schuld auf sich geladen, die nun nach sowjetischem Kriegsrecht dazu führte, dass Demmin drei Tage zur Plünderung freigegeben wurde. Demmin ist drei Tage zur Plünderung freigegeben und das bedeutete, wir zünden die Stadt an und wir üben hier das Kriegsrecht aus. (lit.: There were fanatics who shot at Russians passing through and who were willing to do that. For example Lecturer Gerhard Moldenhauer who told his neighbour: 'I have just killed my family, now I'm going to pick off some Russians and then I'm going to pass away too.' And that he did and thereby he made himself guilty of causing three days of plundering in Demmin. According to Soviet martial law: 'Demmin may be plundered at will for three days' and that meant 'we'll burn the city and bring martial law upon them'".) Then, it was "quiet" until the evening, when the atrocities started. Another incident is said to have happened on 1 May, when the local pharmacist hosted a "victory party" of Soviet officers, killing them with poisoned wine. Focus magazine however dismissed that as a "legend" and theologian and historian Norbert Buske concluded in a 1995 study that the story had been fabricated.
The Soviet soldiers in turn were allowed to loot the town for a period of three days. They committed mass rapes of local women, according to eyewitnesses, "regardless of age", and shot German men who spoke up against this practice. Furthermore, large areas of the town were set on fire, with nearly all of the center burning down completely. Within three days, 80% of the town was destroyed. Reportedly, Soviet soldiers had doused the houses' walls with petrol, before setting them on fire, and stood guard for three days to prevent extinguishing. Many of the soldiers committing the mass rapes, executions, and pillaging were reportedly drunk. On 30 April, when the atrocities started in the evening, Soviet soldiers had looted both Demmin's grain distilleries and several alcohol stores.
Suicides
These events, along with the fear of atrocities stirred up by the Nazi propaganda before, caused a mass panic among the population. Many local and refugee families killed themselves together. The suicides were either performed with guns, razor blades, poison, or hanging, while others drowned themselves in the Peene and Tollense rivers. Several mothers killed their children before killing themselves, or walked into one of the rivers with a rock in a backpack and their babies in their arms. Some families died by walking into the rivers, tied together. A local forester shot three young children, then their mothers, then his wife, and then himself, surviving but losing his sight. In another recorded case, a daughter cut the wrists of her parents.