Walter Benjamin, philosopher. Author of the Theses on the Philosophy of History and The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, among much else. Born on 15 July 1892, he killed himself on 27 September 1940 in order to prevent his capture by the Nazis while attempting to cross the French border into Spain.
Walter Benjamin’s story reminds me of the tales members of the Bahai faith tell of their escapes from Iraq and Iran (one such told me at Magd., indeed, in the ’80s). Of course, they had lived to tell the tale, but their co-religionists were not so lucky. They now live in the wicked west, which, I learn from 28 Sept’s Panorama, is so much worse than the late Saddamite regime…