During the final weeks of the Third Reich and the war in Europe, many civilians, government officials and military personnel throughout Germany committed suicide. In addition to high-ranking Nazi officials like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Philipp Bouhler and Martin Bormann, many others chose Selbstmord (German for "suicide", literally "Self-murder") rather than accept the defeat of Germany.[1] Studies have shown that the suicides were influenced through Nazi propaganda (reaction to the suicide of Adolf Hitler), the tenets of the Nazi Party, the anticipated reprisals following the Allied occupation of Nazi Germany, and the most important factor being the shocking experience of mass rape by Soviet soldiers.