Mass suicide. It’s a rare event, something unique, like an uncommonly beautiful woman – it commands our attention. Using the methods developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, this podcast is an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of mass suicide through he lens of three case studies – one ancient, and two modern.

The Siege of Masada 73 A.D.

The Siege of Masada was the culminating event of the First Roman-Jewish War. Surrounded and facing down legions of pitiless Roman troops, more than 900 Jewish zealots chose to commit suicide, with their wives and children, rather than face death and slavery. They burned all their belongings. They gave everything in their suicides. Their sacrifice is still commemorated in Israeli society today. This is the story of that black day.

The Cowra Breakout 1944 A.D.

It was an Australian prisoner of war camp containing approximately a thousand Japanese – but not any Japanese, these were Japanese steeped like tea bags in the Bushido Samurai ethic. The prisoners were literally told from the time they were infants that death was preferable to dishonor. For them, every breath they took was shameful – and the solution was in the Australian guard towers – in the bristling, gleaming machine guns and the baseball-like grenades. At the fence line, death could be found easily. This is the story of that black day.

The Jonestown Massacre 1978

They called him “Father;” they called him “God.” He led them to death. Jonestown is the sad source of the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid.” Almost a thousand of Jones’s followers, including women, children and infants did just that – they drank the poison-laden Kool-Aid, sending their bodies into flopping convulsions – “slain by the spirit” of a demon named Jim Jones. This is the story of that black day.

It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.

Download episode 88 here: download link

Maps and Images:

Extensive maps and images are posted to the historical atlas of the Cowra Breakout and The Siege of Masada are located here and here.

Music Source:

Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio /// website: karlcasey.bandcamp.com

References

Raven: The untold story of the Rev. Jim Jones and his people by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs. 

Japanese prisoners of war in revolt : the outbreaks at Featherston and Cowra during World War II by Charlotte Carr-Gregg (1978).

The wars of the Jews by Josephus, Flavius (1974). 

Break-Out! – The Japanese POW Break-Out at Cowra, 1944 by Hugh V. Clarke

The Cowra Breakout by Mat McLachlan 

The night of a thousand suicides: The Japanese outbreak at Cowra by Teruhiko Asada (1972)

Dead Men Rising by Seaforth Mackenzie [aka. Kenneth Mackenzie]  

The road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn

Die like carp! By Harry Gordon (1981)

Jerusalem’s traitor by Desmond Seward (2009)

The Jewish Revolt AD 66-74 by Si Sheppard (2013)

Masada: Herod’s fortress and the Zealots’ last stand by Yadin, Yigael (1966)

Masada: From Jewish revolt to modern myth by Jodi Magness 

Jones, Jim (1978). Death Tape.

Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle. Storyville. BBC. (not dated).