History BetterToDieThanBeKilled / RealLife

* Famously said to be the fate of UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, who was sentenced to be [[CruelAndUnusualDeath hung, drawn and quartered]] for his involvement in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. After the noose was placed around his neck to begin the first phase of the planned execution, Fawkes allegedly jumped from the gallows, causing his neck to snap at the end of the rope; this killed him instantly, sparing him the torturous death he was intended to face.

* Famously said to be the fate of UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, who was sentenced to be [[CruelAndUnusualDeath hung, drawn and quartered]] for his involvement in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. After the noose was placed around his neck to begin the first phase of the planned execution, Fawkes allegedly jumped from the gallows; this produced enough force against the rope to snap his neck, killing him instantly and sparing him the torturous death he was intended to face.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more workers until their elevators literally started to distort from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the affected floors, and the single fire escape (which was a treacherous escape route by itself as it ended at the second floor, but could have been used to bring people down to the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and had collapsed before the fire department even arrived. With no way out and the fire growing more intense by the minute, dozens of workers chose to jump to their deaths from the ninth floor windows rather than face a horrific, painful death by burning[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* Famously said to be the fate of UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, who jumped off the scaffold and broke his neck to avoid being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath hung, drawn and quartered]] for his involvement in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.

** On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the locals, they feared retaliation from the advancing Soviets. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[{{Ghostapo}} fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]] [[note]]The reason for this is largely the same -- euthanasia by potassium cyanide was considered [[BlueAndOrangeMorality as the most humane and dignified death available]]. The Nazis used it in the camps because they [[SkewedPriorities did not want]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards to be monsters]], and then used it on themselves hoping to die with a minimum of suffering.[[/note]]
** After the July 20, 1944, coup attempt against Hitler failed, some of the conspirators died of suicide rather than face execution by the Nazis. Ludwig Beck, for example, convinced his captors to give him a pistol and shot himself, while Henning von Tresckow blew himself up with a grenade held under his chin.
*** In an example from the same plot, Erwin Rommel, a legendary German general known as "The Desert Fox," was ''offered'' this trope by Hitler himself.[[note]]While Rommel wasn't active in the plot, he did know about it and kept it a secret[[/note]] Specifically, Rommel's conviction and subsequent death sentence were inevitable given that the Fuhrer controlled the courts. However, Hitler, in a bit of pragmatism, realized that the German people loved Rommel; having him labeled a traitor and publicly executed would be terrible for the populace's morale. As such, he dispatched two of his generals to Rommel's home on the eve of his trial and offered the general the chance to take cyanide that very night. Rommel, after securing promises that his family would be protected and given a full pension, took the deal. His "official" cause of death was listed as a heart attack, and Hitler gave him a full military burial, complete with honor guard and a national day of mourning.
** Japanese propaganda was used to convince Japanese soldiers and the natives of the islands they occupied that the Americans were savages who would rape and torture them if they ever captured them. This often led to mass suicides among Japanese soldiers and native civilians whenever the Americans landed on an island. Perhaps the most notable instance of this occurred on the island of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan Saipan]] in July 1944. Some 10,000 Japanese civilians took their own lives rather than be captured by the Americans, many doing so by jumping off cliffs now nicknamed "Banzai Cliff" and "Suicide Cliff." Japanese soldiers were often only taken prisoner if they were so badly injured they physically ''couldn't'' commit suicide, whether by their own hand or by enemy fire.
* Decebalus of Dacia, to avoid being captured and humiliated by the Romans.

* During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, people on his hit list often got notified that they probably wanted to commit suicide or he'd make them wish they had. Given how sadistically Nero had some people executed, it should be no surprise that many who received such notes took their advice. Among those that did were his former tutor the philosopher Seneca and Petronius, author of the ''Satyricon.''
** Nero died of suicide when he was declared as an enemy of the state after the burning of Rome. Sure, it was completely normal back then, but nonetheless, it's a great example of poetic justice.

* The Russian ''bylina'' tales tell of Chuds committing mass suicides in front of advancing Russian conquerors when they saw their situation hopeless. The Chuds were a Finnic people living in northwestern Russia. They were described to have dug underground complexes where they took all their valuables, their children and family members, and then collapsed them, burying both themselves and the Russian conquerors alive. Such collapsed tombs have actually been found.

** On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the locals, they feared retaliation from the advancing Soviets. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[{{Ghostapo}} fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]\\
\\
There was a reason for the poison of choice. Euthanasia by potassium cyanide was considered [[BlueAndOrangeMorality as the most humane and dignified death available]], and the Nazis [[SkewedPriorities did not want to be monsters]].

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more workers until their elevators literally started to distort from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which was a treacherous escape route by itself as it ended at the second floor, but could have been used to bring people down to the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and had collapsed before the fire department even arrived. With no way out and the fire growing more intense by the minute, dozens of workers chose to jump to their deaths from the ninth floor windows rather than face a horrific, painful death by burning[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more workers until their elevators literally started to distort from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which wasn't much help by itself as it didn't reach all the way to the ground, but could have been used in combination with the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out and the fire growing more intense by the minute, dozens of workers chose to jump to their deaths from the ninth floor windows rather than face a horrific, painful death by burning[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more workers until their elevators literally started to melt from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which wasn't much help by itself as it didn't reach all the way to the ground, but could have been used in combination with the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out and the fire growing more intense by the minute, dozens of workers chose to jump to their deaths from the ninth floor windows rather than face a horrific, painful death by burning[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more girls until their elevators literally started to melt from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which wasn't much help by itself as it didn't reach all the way to the ground, but could have been used in combination with the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out and the fire growing more intense by the minute, dozens of workers chose to jump to their deaths from the ninth floor windows rather than face a horrific, painful death by burning[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* Cato the Younger (not the one who constantly said "[[ChewbaccaDefense Carthago Delenda Est]]"; that was Cato the Elder), who was well-known for his moral rectitude, died of suicide after being defeated by Caesar. He and another prominent Optimate, Metellus Scipio, had broken away from Pompey after he was defeated at Pharsalus and fled to Africa. Cato didn't command this army; he left it to Scipio. When he learned of Caesar's victory, he died of suicide not only because he didn't want to live in a world with Caesar in power but he also ''refused to give Caesar the power to pardon him''.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more girls until their elevators literally started to melt from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which wasn't much help by itself as it didn't reach all the way to the ground, but could have been used in combination with the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out, and facing the prospect of a horrific death by burning, dozens of workers chose the comparatively quicker and less painful option of jumping to their deaths from the ninth floor windows[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more girls until their elevators literally started to melt from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which wasn't much help by itself as it didn't reach all the way to the ground, but could have been used in combination with the ladders) was poorly built and possibly already broken and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out, and facing the prospect of a horrific death by burning, dozens of workers jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor windows[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

** On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the locals, they feared retaliation from the advancing Soviets. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[DrinkingTheKoolAid fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]\\

* Ancient British rebel leader Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, took this option when her host was routed by the Romans.

* 90 years before 9/11, there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In this case, there was nothing structurally wrong with the building that prevented them escaping, but the entrance to one of the two stairways had been locked as an anti-theft measure and could not be opened because none of the keyholders were there at the time, and the other was already on fire by the time workers on the ninth floor became aware of the danger. Some workers escaped by climbing up to the roof before the staircase was blocked completely and crossing over to adjacent buildings, and others escaped on the freight elevators[[note]]thanks in large part to the [[HeroicBystander elevator operators]] who kept going back up to save more girls until their elevators literally started to melt from the heat[[/note]], but soon, the elevators were inoperable and the staircase was fully engulfed in flames such that it was completely unusable, even to go up to the roof. The fire department ladders were too short to reach the necessary floors, and the single fire escape (which could have bridged that critical gap) was poorly built and collapsed within minutes of the start of the tragedy. With no way out, and facing the prospect of a horrific death by burning, dozens of workers jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor windows[[note]]the fire department tried to put up nets to catch them, but the nets were flimsy and the falling victims tore right through them[[/note]]. Ultimately, 62 of the 146 killed in the tragedy were determined to have died by jumping.

** The passengers of one of the hijacked planes [[Awesome/RealLife attacked the hijackers]] to regain control of the cockpit. They stopped the terrorists from reaching their (probable) destination of Washington D.C., instead causing it to crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

* R. Budd Dwyer, treasurer of Pennsylvania, AteHisGun during a televised news conference rather than face sentencing the next day for charges stemming from a bribe scandal. There was a reason for this, however: if he died before the trial, his family would still get the pension, [[LoopholeAbuse as he wasn't technically a criminal until he was charged.]]

* R. Budd Dwyer, treasurer of Pennsylvania, AteHisGun during a televised news conference rather than face sentencing the next day for charges stemming from a bribe scandal.

* During the purges of the 1930s, several Soviet politicians died of suicide rather than go to the gulag.

** On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the peoples living there, [[TheDogBitesBack the Russians were retaliating with war crimes of their own]]. Many men and especially women (who would be raped in addition to being killed) chose to take their own lives, often alongside their entire families. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[DrinkingTheKoolAid fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]\\

** On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the peoples living there, [[TheDogBitesBack the Russians were retaliating with war crimes of their own]]. Many men and especially women (who would be raped in addition to being killed) chose to take their own lives, often alongside their entire families. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief Heinrich Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[DrinkingTheKoolAid fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]\\

* Eric Harris of the Columbine High shooting, when realizing that none of his and Dylan Klebold's bombs had gone off, that they couldn't bring themselves to kill some people they were close to, and that a police sniper had already found them and was ready to shoot, shot himself to make sure that he'd never be brought in for questioning. Klebold doesn't quite match this trope, as he had been fantasizing about and wanting to commit suicide for months and the shooting was primarily a vehicle to make him do it finally, as he regretted killing other people (this can be seen in the way he ascends the cafeteria stairs one last time in the security footage).

--->'''Firefighter Joe Casaliggi:''' How bad is it up there that jumping is the better option?

* ''{{Seppuku}}'' could be used by samurai to avoid falling into enemy hands. ''Jigai'' was a less messy version that women could use to the same ends. One of the most famous cases of Seppuku that are in spirit of this trope was the demise of the warlord UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga: Betrayed by his general UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Honnoji, only having few men to defend him and victory seemed hopeless, Nobunaga then chose to seal himself within the main temple while it's being burnt down on his orders, and then committed seppuku rather than allowing Mitsuhide to strike the fatal blow.

* On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the peoples living there, [[TheDogBitesBack the Russians were retaliating with war crimes of their own]]. Many men and especially women (who would be raped in addition to being killed) chose to take their own lives, often alongside their entire families. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. Former Governor-General of Poland Hans Frank slashed his wrists and throat but failed to kill himself. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief Heinrich Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[DrinkingTheKoolAid fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]
** There was a reason for the poison of choice. Euthanasia by potassium cyanide was considered [[BlueAndOrangeMorality as the most humane and dignified death available]], and the Nazis [[SkewedPriorities did not want to be monsters]].

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Japanese propaganda was used to convince Japanese soldiers and the natives of the islands they occupied that the Americans were savages who would rape and torture them if they ever captured them. This often led to mass suicides among Japanese soldiers and native civilians whenever the Americans landed on an island. Perhaps the most notable instance of this occurred on the island of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan Saipan]] in July 1944. Some 10,000 Japanese civilians took their own lives rather than be captured by the Americans, many doing so by jumping off cliffs now nicknamed "Banzai Cliff" and "Suicide Cliff."

* World War I:
** Gavrilo Princip, the man who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and set off World War I, attempted to do this, but the cyanide was too old and his gun was wrenched out of his hands.

* On April 30, 1945, with the Soviets attacking Berlin, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler [[VillainousBreakdown felt]] that [[YouHaveFailedMe the German people had failed him]] and, hoping that they would be utterly destroyed, shot himself in the head with a pistol and left them to their fate. His new bride, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself at his side. The next day, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then shot themselves. Hours later, Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann tried to flee the bunker, but was unable to get through the Soviet advance and took cyanide. Afterward, many others in the bunker killed themselves, including Generals Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf. Tens of thousands of German civilians followed suit, especially in the Eastern "colonies", where, having committed atrocities against the peoples living there, [[TheDogBitesBack the Russians were retaliating with war crimes of their own]]. Many men and especially women (who would be raped in addition to being killed) chose to take their own lives, often alongside their entire families. Numerous generals, admirals, and Nazi Party officials also died of suicide rather than being captured, tried, and executed. Josef Terboven, the brutal governor of Nazi-occupied Norway, blew himself up with dynamite. After being arrested by British troops and identified, former SS chief Heinrich Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule. German Labour Front leader Robert Ley hanged himself before he could be tried at the Nuremberg Trial, and former Reich Marshall and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring did the same the night before he could be hanged after being condemned there, as an act of defiance against his captors. Suicide on such a mass scale was utterly uncommon in the West, with its Judeo-Christian and Rationalist Enlightenment values, but was encouraged by the [[DrinkingTheKoolAid fanatical, occultist, neo-paganist cult of Nazism]]. [[IronicDeath Ironically, many Nazis killed themselves with capsules of potassium cyanide, the same poison used to kill millions of their victims in the death camps.]]