Benelux

“But to start everything anew after a man’s 60th year requires special powers, and my own power has been expended after years of wandering homeless. I thus prefer to end my life at the right time, upright, as a man for whom cultural work has always been his purest happiness and personal freedom — the most precious of possessions on this earth.

“I send greetings to all of my friends: May they live to see the dawn after this long night. I, who am most impatient, go before them.

“Stefan Zweig,” ends the note. “Petropolis, 22.2.1942.”