Bernard Aa

Bernard Aa studied medicine at the Municipal University of Amsterdam. He sat for his medical finals on 22 June 1932. Together with his wife Dina van der Kar, he took his own life on 16 May 1940. Dina van der Kar and Bernard Aa were buried in the Jewish cemetery at Muiderberg.
J.H. Coppenhagen, Anafiem Gedoe‘iem. Overleden joodse artsen uit Nederland 1940-1945 (Rotterdam 2000) 73.

Bernard Aa had a…

Meer informatie over de zelfmoord van de familie Aa is te vinden in het boek van Lucas Ligtenberg: Mij krijgen ze niet levend: de zelfmoorden van mei 1940 (Amsterdam, 2017).

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…