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J. Malan Heslop (U.S Army Signal Corps photographer)
The Deputy Mayor of Leipzig and his wife and daughter, who committed suicide in the Neues Rathaus as American troops were entering the city.
1945, 20 April
Gelatin silver print
Creative Commons - Wikipedia
National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the ARC Identifier (National Archives Identifier) 531270
LL/49382
Leipzigs Deputy Mayor and Municipal Treasurer (“Stadtkaemmerer”; since 1940) Dr. jur. Ernst Kurt Lisso (* March 7, 1892; † April 18, 1945), at desk, his wife Renate Stephanie, born Luebbert (* April 12, 1895; † April 18, 1945), in chair, and their daughter Regina Lisso (* May 24, 1924; † April 18, 1945) after committing suicide by cyanide in the Leipzig New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) to avoid capture by American soldiers of the 69th Infantry and 9th Armored Divisions as they closed in on the city. Regina Lisso wears the armband of the German Red Cross. Also found dead in the Rathaus was Mayor (“Oberbuergermeister”) Alfred Freyberg and his wife and daughter and former Mayor and Battalion leader of the Volkssturm (erroneously described as a “Volkssturm General”) Kurt Walter Doenicke as well as several Volksturm officers. The 777th Tank Destroyer Battalion's official history says the Americans overshot the Rathaus because of old maps on April 18, and the assault began the next morning on April 19. American tanks fired on the Rathaus from 7.30 to 9.10 Hours, when a captured German officer carried in a surrender ultimatum. The Rathaus commander accepted the terms at 9.30. the Americans captured one major general, 175 enlisted men, and thirteen Gestapo police. The American flag was raised over the Rathaus around 1200 Hours. The scene of the Lisso suicides was extensively photographed by Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, and Lee Miller, as well as the United States Army Signal Corps. For reasons that remain unclear, the Freyberg family was not photographed.
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