Steve Schartz asks: ...

>Didn't Walter Benjamin die (commit suicide) trying to get out of the
>Reich?

Yes, in particular, Walter Benjamin was a member of a group who fled
France into Spain an arduous and dangerous trip.  They thought that they
were safe, but the Spanish authorities announced that the were to be
returned because they did not possess French exit visas.  It was then
that Benjamin took his own life.

Bernard Chasan