David Lester (1) (1942–)

This book absolutely terrified me. It took me forever to finish it... I think my copy is now overdue at the university library by 2 months.

I'm going to write a review later when my head is clear!

163 pages. Good book on a difficult subject. Written in a question and answer format. The answers are footnoted and cite mostly academic sources. Probably must buy for pastors and lay counselors. Otherwise get this from your library.

A very interesting, thought-provoking study, looking at suicides not only among victims of the Holocaust but among its perpetrators and bystanders. The author presents a great deal of data and draws some conclusions that surprised me, but made sense with what he had to work with. I was, however, disappointed that he only talked about suicides in Western Europe. Suicides in Eastern Europe were practically ignored.

Meh. This book was remarkably shallow. It covers 334 entries in under 150 pages. None of the entries are more than half a page long, and a few are only one sentence long. I counted three entries that didn't even mention the person's death at all. Also, it could have used another pass at the editor's table; I saw many typographical and contextual errors. I usually like David Lester's suicide studies but this one was a great disappointment.