Leendert Wins

Only days after the German invasion Jozef Wins, his wife Sara Wins-de Kromme and two of their children, Leendert and Bertha, committed suicide. One child survived the war.
Amsterdam Municipal Archives; record card of Jozef Wins

It is still an extremely sensitive topic: suicide during the Second World War. Historians have not known what to do with it for a long time. What is the place of suicide in war history?

Remarkably little has been written on this subject and there seems to be no list of names or memorial books at all. The Digital Monument (www.joodsmonument.nl) offers a place where relatives, sometimes for the firs…