After Auschwitz: What Is a Good Death?

Abstract

Suicide brings on many changes. A life ends abruptly and the suicide is interpreted differently depending on circumstances and opinion. Sometimes it is seen as profoundly irrational, absurd and tragic, other times, as a heroic last act of an individual taking action to determine their fate. Often we aestheticize another’s suicide with heroism or capitulations. But no matter how we view suicide, a person’s death necessarily becomes the capstone that ‘‘backshadows’’ the entire existence of the deceased. It comes as no surprise that suicide among Holocaust survivors is high. A few of the most recognizable figures are Bruno Bettelheim, Paul Celan, Jerzy Kosinski, Jean Amery, Tadeusz Borowski, and apparently Primo Levi. Since so many survivors choose suicide, it is almost considered a truism that their camp experience led them to make the choice. However, a closer look at the ‘‘deaths’’ of Primo Levi and Jean Amery unveils a great deal of ambiguity.1 Although a consensus seems to have emerged that Levi committed suicide, the uncertainty surrounding his death has left the issue open to doubt. For example, Diego Gambetta has investigated Levi’s death and provides us with a very clear picture of Levi’s ‘‘Last Moments’’: