Štefan Lux

Štefan Lux (4 November 1888 – 3 July 1936) was a Slovak Jewish journalist, and a Czechoslovak citizen who committed suicide in the general assembly of the League of Nations during its session on 3 July 1936. He shot himself in order to alert the world leaders of the rising dangers of German authoritarianism, expansionism, antisemitism, and militarism, hoping this would inspire the international community to take collective action against Nazi Germany.

Personal life Lux was born to Jewish parents in Hungary in 1888. He studied drama in Vienna, and by 1911 he had moved to Berlin. He served Austria-Hungary in World War I, and was wounded twice.

After the war, Lux returned to Berlin, where he helped to found the Social Film Society. He directed a film starring Rudolph Shildkraut about the forced expulsions of the Jewish people throughout history, which was scheduled to premiere in March 1920. However, after the Kapp Putsch, a failed coup attempt which sought to restore the Kaiser to the throne of Germany, the funding was withdrawn and the film never premiered.

Lux bounced between jobs during the 1920s and early 1930s, during which time he wrote for Die Weltbühne (The World Stage), a left-wing German newspaper which was banned by the Nazi party in 1933. That same year, Lux fled with his wife and son back to his hometown of Malacky, which was now located within the borders of Czechoslovakia. Historian Carolyn Biltoft suggests that the reduction of Lux to his Jewish identity in the League's rhetoric was influenced by Avenol's personal leanings. stating "I do not whisper, Sir Eden, I shout it out: in Germany, you are dealing with criminals." He invoked his authority as a "dead man" to be heard, and specifically urged the swift resolution of the Italo-Ethiopian War.

Memorials Amen. a Costa-Gavras movie of 2002 begins with the suicide of Lux in Geneva. Corrosion of Conformity's 1994 song "Pearls Before Swine" contains audio in the first 30 seconds of Lux's pre-speech introduction to the League of Nations.