Štefan Lux
Štefan Lux | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | Malacky, Austro-Hungarian Empire | 11 November 1888
Died | 3 July 1936 Geneva, Switzerland | (aged 47)
Other names | Peter Sturmbusch |
Occupation | Journalist, writer, stage actor, film director |
Štefan Lux (4 November 1888 – 3 July 1936) was a Slovak Jewish journalist, and a Czechoslovak citizen, who committed suicide in the general assembly of the League of Nations during its session on 3 July 1936. He shot himself in order to alert the world leaders of the rising dangers of German antisemitism, expansionism, and militarism.
After shouting "C'est le dernier coup" ("This is the final blow"), he shot himself with a revolver.[1] In his suicide note he begged the British foreign secretary Anthony Eden to do something to stop Germany's criminal regime. Eden was never shown the letter. [2]
Condemning his act, but paying tribute to his cause, the journalist Léon Savary concluded: "People bold enough to fight for justice shouldn't kill themselves, but stay at their position."
His actions were misreported by the world media at the time.[clarification needed]
Lux was also a writer, a theater actor, and a film director,[3] who published his work under the pseudonym Peter Sturmbusch.
He was wounded on more than one occasion during World War I.[4]
Works
- Under Peter Sturmbusch pseudonym:
- Meine Lieder. ; Wien, C. Konegen, 1911. OCLC 79798882
- Drei Lieder für hohe Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung ; Julius Rünger; Peter Sturmbusch; Ema Destinnová; Ada Negri; Mainz : B. Schott's Söhne, 1916. OCLC 52499152
- Liebeslieder. ; Wien: Carl Konegen, 1921. OCLC 34528147
- Nur keck : Posse mit Gesang in 3 Akten ; Johann Nestroy; Peter Sturmbusch; Wien : Interterritorialer Verlag "Renaissance" (Erdtracht) 1923. OCLC 72234224
- As film Director:
- 1920 – Gerechtigkeit[5]
Memorials
- Amen. a Costa-Gavras movie of 2002 begins with the suicide of Lux in Geneva.
- Corrosion of Conformity's 1994 song "Pearls Before Swine" contains audio in the first 30 seconds of Lux's pre-speech introduction to the League of Nations.
See also
- Self-immolation, suicide for the purpose of protest
References
- ^ Michael B. Oren (21 October 2002). The New Republic (ed.). "The Rescuer – A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust by David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff". Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2007.
- ^ James Loeffler (2018). Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century. Yale University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-300-21724-7.
- ^ Stephan Lux at IMDb
- ^ "Přišel mezi světové politiky a zastřelil se Zdroj" (in Czech). 3 July 2011.
- ^ Gerechtigkeit. at IMDb
- Michael Biggs ; The Transnational Diffusion of Protest by Self-Immolation ; Department of Sociology, University of Oxford (2005), p. 17–29
- Betty Sargent ; The Desperate Mission of Stefan Lux ; The Georgia review. 55, no. 4, (2001): 187 ; Athens, University of Georgia. OCLC 95114451
- (in German) Der Opfertod von Genf : die Tat des Stephan Lux vor der Völkerbundsversammlung in the Israelitische Wochenblatt für die Schweiz 10 July 1936.
- (in German) Arnold Hahn : Vor den Augen der Welt ! Warum starb Stefan Lux ? Sein Leben, seine Tat, seine Briefe (Prag : Verlag der Cechoslovakisches Liga gegen den Antisemitismus, 1936). OCLC 71996332
- (in Spanish) Stefan Lux : Porqué se mató el periodista Stéfan Lux : apuntes para la historia de un mártir del siglo XX. ; Buenos Aires : Columna, 1937. OCLC 77527672
- (in German) Rüdiger Strempel: Lux. Gegen den Nationalsozialismus und die Lethargie der Welt. Osburg Verlag, Hamburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-95510-216-6.
- (in French) League of Nations Archives : Registry n° 15/24650/17433.
- CS1 Czech-language sources (cs)
- IMDb ID not in Wikidata
- Use dmy dates from December 2021
- Articles with hCards
- Justapedia articles needing clarification from August 2016
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Articles with German-language sources (de)
- Articles with Spanish-language sources (es)
- Articles with French-language sources (fr)
- AC with 0 elements
- 1888 births
- 1936 suicides
- Slovak film directors
- Slovak journalists
- Slovak male stage actors
- Slovak Jews
- League of Nations people
- Suicides by firearm in Switzerland
- People from Malacky
- 20th-century journalists
- 1936 deaths
- German-language writers
- Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I