Suicides - an Ashkenazi custom

Did someone ever wonder why the suicides of מצדה became so central to the Israeli Zionist mythology?

Jaim Klein commenting to mentalblog.com: Rabbi Moshe Kanovsky Esquire Suicides are an Ashkenazi custom, and David Farkas did confirm it. It started during the Cruzades, when individuals as well entire communities went willingly to kiddusch haschem. After Nurnberg Laws a wave of suicides affected the German Jewry, some 25% of Jewish lawyers killed themselves. I read that in a concentration camp an ordinance detailed that those wishing to hang themselves should put a paper with their names and numbers - German love of order and neatness. My Father z"l used to say we Jews have some kind of disease of the mind, only that can explain our behavior. Maybe genetically we are more exposed to this mental disease. Even here, Tzemach, ideas of suicide are mentioned too much. Every Jew must always emphasize that suicide is shameful and asur in all circumstances, and those tempted eyn lechem helek be olam habaa.