If I was in a Nazi concentration camp, part of the black slave trade or something like that, I would think this a really crappy life with no future, in a shed load of pain, involuntary supporting evil selfish people.
I would have no qualms nor hesitation in terminating myself.
Although there were instances of this, the vast majority didn’t.
How does that work?
7 comments
its simple. when people are forced down and trampled upon their first instinct is to fight back. sometimes some external opposition forces us to kick back with everything we got and makes us stronger. however when the opposition comes from the inside much of the time its too worthy a foe because we’re fighting against ourselves and we inevitably lose.
Well first of all, suicide isn’t the most easy thing to pull off, you need materials, time and a strategy.
Victims of oppression may be driven to suicidal thoughts, but I believe in most cases, even the smallest bit of hope keeps a person from killing them self. Despite being in concentration camps and faced with grim circumstances there was still a chance of being liberated. Inside many people there is a strong sense of justice, and the brutality would cause a strong sense of anger which replaces the hopelessness. To kill them self would be equivalent to letting the enemy win – which would be unjust. Some also had family members that relied on them, or somewhere with the possibility that they were still alive which meant the person had to live, so if they were ever liberated they could find out what happened to them. Or, they had family in the concentration camp and wouldn’t want to hurt them through their death especially when these relationships were so crucial and they relied on each other heavily for moral support. There are a ton of reasons why many chose not to kill themselves despite those atrocious circumstances.
I agree with SB
Check out Man’s Search for Meaning..by Viktor Frankl… at least the first half which is an account of living through concentration camps. While i can’t speak of suicides, the authour mentions people having a look.. despair.. losing the will to live would inevitably lead to their deaths.
I wonder same thing but it might be that, like myself, they didn’t have easy access to suicide or worried about leaving suffering loved ones behind. I am sure people must have hanged themselves from their beds in the concentration camps. I did read that some in the camps would crawl to the electric fence and grab hold of it to end their life. That’s what I would do. As for slaves I have read a bit about that too. On the slave ships coming over from Africa some tried to starve themselves to death but the white guys sometimes force fed them. Some of them throw themselves overboard to be eaten by sharks. When they got to America sometimes they would drown themselves in ponds of water or I even read about one slave guy that threw himself into a burning furnace. Many of the slaves were converted to Christianity so they were probably worried about their souls if they would commit suicide.
I know people look at my life from the outside and think “why don’t you just commit suicide” but unfortunately its not so easy. There are so many factors such as limited means, worries for aging family members and pets, worries about uncertainty of what comes after death….all these things do get in the way although the desire is very very strong.
Someone who REALLY wants to die, will make that happen. Those of us that wish we’d commit suicide, probably don’t really want to. Just saying.
I do really want to die but I have not found a way to make it happen. I try to strangle myself, never works. I have no way to get a gun. One option I have is to set myself on fire which is horrific