Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Psychology and Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
18,4 (1994) 323-338
Keywords:
Benjamin, Walter,
;
Toller, Ernst,
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Suicide Religious aspects
;
Judaism
Abstract:
Discusses two cases of suicide: of the literary critic Walter Benjamin and the playwright Ernst Toller, both assimilated German Jews who left their country in 1933. Toller committed suicide in New York in May 1939, and Benjamin in Spain in September 1940. Traces internal conflicts related to their personalities which allow a better understanding of why they killed themselves. Both of them left the Jewish community and had a strong need for acceptance in the Christian environment; their chances ended with the rise of Hitler to power. Both were very lonely persons with a need for intellectual domination over others, and both were suicidal types.
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