Dr. Silvio Saidemberg ------------------------------------July 10, 1999
STEFAN ZWEIG AND ELISABETH: THE MYSTERY THAT INSISTS ON COMING BACK!
Under examination a collection of newspapers and magazines from 1942, in addition, some Stefan Zweig's biographies. Stefan and Lotte’s suicide became the official history, nevertheless, 23 discrepancies were found. The newspapers collection was handed down to me by the prestigious psychoanalyst Dr. Jacob Pinheiro Goldberg on February 28, 1999.
The date when the couple was found dead is February 23, 1942, i.e. more than 57 years ago, around six months after settling in Petropolis. Everything seems to have been meticulously planned: the salary of the house employees, some money to be donated, the last legal statement giving destination to their possessions, the last writings to be published, the payment of the rent, instructions on how their clothes should be given away to their employees and to the poor, even the destiny of "Bluchy" the small dog was contrived, it would stay with Mrs. Margarida Banfield ( the proprietor of the house they held under lease ). Several farewell letters were written and put in stamped and addressed envelops. It seems that the preparation for the tragic event took some five or six days.
In the newspapers, there was a facsimile of his "Declaration" with a Portuguese translation presenting the strange omission of the last two phrases: "I wish that you all may be able to see again the sunrise after this long night. Too impatiently, I go before this"; he seemed to be referring to the turmoil of that war in course and to his wishful defeat of Nazism. In accord with the press, of March 1, 1942, the author of that suppression was the writer Claudio de Sousa ( a former medical professor of Therapeutics at the Pharmacy School – USP; a "Nazi sympathiser" in accord with a Press editorial of March the 1s t , 1942 - Correio do Povo - Porto Alegre- STEFAN ZWEIG TRUSTED THE DEFEAT OF NAZISM. Accusation that Sousa vehemently denied afterwards, even though he had written a couple of years earlier a text called "Our Race" where he made claims about a "Latin race" developed "as a consequence of the Semitic decadence". In that text he traced a positive analogy with the race pride of Germans and Austrians ). He was also the friend who phoned at 3 PM to invite Stefan for a walk, shortly thereafter the couple was found dead ( at 4 PM, finally the employees – Antonio and Dulce Moraes - were able to break in the room, through the locked up door ). Later on, giving a statement to the press as a friend of Stefan Zweig, Claudio de Sousa allegedly said: "
the suicide had been caused by Zweig’s financial losses in Europe and for the Axis sweeping victories", what is quite interesting when everyone of Zweig’s personal friends claimed total surprise before the couple’s suicide. Also, Claudio de Sousa took the initiative to call the Presidential Palace, requesting for the burial arrangements.Stefan and Elisabeth were solemnly buried next day, February the 24th at 4 PM, in Petropolis, at the expenses of the federal government. The previous week, on Sunday, February the 15th, Claudio de Sousa had spent the afternoon with Stefan Zweig, helping him translate from French a reply to a newspaper which had earlier published an unwarranted personal attack against Zweig ( on February the 16th, Stefan Zweig confided all these occurrences to Ernst Feder, a close friend ), the addressee never admitted to have "received" Zweig’s reply, apparently, no copy of this letter was produced anywhere and Claudio de Sousa didn’t confirm the existence of such a document which he allegedly translated from French to Portuguese.
The death certificate had as the informer, Sr. Sady Ferreira Barbosa, apparently an unknown person to Stefan Zweig, and besides the address and city, there is a quite incomplete personal information: "Stephan Zweig ( the name Stefan is produced as Stephan ); male; white; writer; parents: legitimate; married; date of death: February 23, 1942; time: 12:30; cause of death: suicide by ingestion of toxic substance; physician that attested: Dr. Mario M. Pinheiro".
No necropsy was performed due to instruction that allegedly came from the presidential palace in Petropolis. (on that date and afterwards president Getulio Vargas in his Diary doesn’t even write a word about Stefan Zweig, nevertheless, mentions on February the 28th that the guard of his palace had to receive reinforcements for an expected imminent attack from Nazism adepts; a month before, on January the 28th, Brazil had severed diplomatic relations with the Axis).
There is a first photo presentation of "how they were found", she was laying in bed by his side. In the second photo presentation, that came up in the press some days later, she was laying upon him, having a left wrist bracelet which was missing in the first photo presentation. The curious first photo presentation had an improbable characteristic, her left hand and fore-arm were floating in space (suggesting "rigor mortis" in a body moved from its original position) showing that this first and finally official photo presentation is quite unlikely. The images brought into view call our attention: Lotte uses a night-gown and Stefan is dressed as if he was ready for a promenade; perhaps they were set for different intents...
There was an inescapable conclusion broadly disseminated: the well informed couple would know by then about the fate of humankind, "Nazism will prevail". Furthermore, "not even in death, Jews had the courage to assume their cultural or religious identity". It was largely not in compass with the most courageous public attitude in defence of the exiles, consistently assumed by Stefan Zweig.
In a paper basket there was a discarded and torn document with the statement on the terrible living conditions of Jews in Europe and also that it was not unknown to him that he was considered by the Nazis (Berchtesgaden as a metaphor) their worst intellectual enemy ("the most dangerous Jewish intellectual"), what puzzled him ("Thomas and Heinrich Mann are more meritorious than me..." - "O Globo" February the 24th, 1942). Here comes the most intriguing question, how was he informed about his being considered the Nazis' worst intellectual enemy? As far as it is known, he was not officially hunted by them.
It is quite a surprise that throughout all these 57 years there remains still unanswered extremely important questions without a convincing explanation. In Petropolis, the only remembrances of Stefan Zweig are the couple's tomb at the cemetery and the Austrian friends’ plate in his honour at the entrance of his last address, a not open for visitation private residence.
Bibliography:
*Dr. Silvio Saidemberg ( physician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, professor of psychiatry at PUC- Medical School, Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from The University of Rochester, NY; presently in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil) e-mail: