1944 deaths

Gustav Aschaffenburg (May 23, 1866 – September 2, 1944) was a German psychiatrist born in Zweibrücken.
In 1890 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Strasbourg with a thesis on delirium tremens. Later he worked as an assistant to Emil Kraepelin at the psychiatric university clinic in Heidelberg, with whom he later extensively wrote about Haltlose personality disorder. He then practiced psychiatric medicine at the University of Halle and at the Akademie für praktische Medizin in Cologne (from 1919 the University of Cologne).
In the 1930s Aschaffenburg's academic career at Cologne was terminated by the Nazi edict, Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, and he eventually emigrated to the United States, working as a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
He wrote about the distinctions between Haltlose and Gemütlose psychopathy.
Aschaffenburg was a pioneer in the fields of criminology and forensic psychiatry. In 1903 he published an early systematic study on the causes of crime titled "Das Verbrechen und seine Bekämpfung", in which he discusses individual-hereditary and social-environmental factors, and also dismisses Cesare Lombroso's idea of the so-called "born criminal". Later the work was translated into English, and published as Crime and it's Repression (1913). It was also translated into Swedish by Olof Kinberg and Julia Kinberg.

Émile Charles Achard (24 July 1860 – 7 August 1944) was a French internist born in Paris.In Paris, he served as médecin des hôpitaux (from 1893), later becoming a professor of general pathology and therapeutics. In 1910, he was appointed professor of internal medicine at the University of Paris (Hôpital Beaujon). During his career, he also served as a physician at Hôpital Cochin.

In 1896, along with Raoul Bensaude (1866–1938), he identified a disease he called paratyphoid fever. They were able to isolate the cause of illness to a microbe now classified as salmonella paratyphi B.
A postmenopausal condition known as "diabetic-bearded woman syndrome" is sometimes referred to as "Achard-Thiers syndrome", and the eponymous "Achard syndrome" is a disorder characterized by arachnodactyly, brachycephaly, a receding lower jaw and joint laxity in the extremities.In 1897, along with internist Joseph Castaigne (1871–1951), he developed a urinary test using methylene blue dye for examining the excretory function of the kidneys. The procedure was to become known as the "Achard-Castaigne test". With Castaigne and Georges Maurice Debove (1845–1920), he published Manuel des maladies du tube digestif.

Georges Melchior (15 September 1889 – 2 September 1944) was a French actor of the silent era. He appeared in 67 films between 1911 and 1937.

Georges Biscot (15 September 1889 – 18 December 1944) was a French film actor. He starred in some 28 films between 1916 and his death in 1944.
He appeared in films such as Barrabas in 1920, and he died on 18 December 1944 in Paris.

Jan Piwnik (31 August 1912 – 16 June 1944) was a Polish World War II soldier, a cichociemny and a notable leader of the Home Army in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. He used the nickname Ponury ("Gloomy" or "Grim") and Donat.

Rudolf Peschel (21 April 1894 – 30 June 1944) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Peschel was killed in action on 30 June 1944 during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive.

Mathilde de Morny (26 May 1863 – 29 June 1944) was a French aristocrat and artist. Morny was also known by the nickname "Missy" or by the artistic pseudonym "Yssim" (an anagram of Missy), or as "Max", "Uncle Max" (French: Oncle Max), or "Monsieur le Marquis". Active as a sculptor and painter, Morny studied under Comte Saint-Cène and the sculptor Édouard-Gustave-Louis Millet de Marcilly.

Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri (25 December 1874 – 7 February 1944) was an Italian operatic dramatic soprano, actress, and monologist.

René-Charles Platon (19 September 1886 – 28 August 1944) was a French admiral who was responsible for the Colonial Ministry under the Vichy government.
He was a passionate supporter of the Révolution nationale (National Revolution) of Vichy France, which he wanted to export to the colonies.
He was hostile to elected bodies, anti-Semitic, anti-Masonic and supported the back-to-the-soil movement.
He saw Britain as the enemy of France. After the Allied invasion of Normandy, he was captured by French partisans in the summer of 1944, given a summary trial, and executed.

Pierre Georges (21 January 1919 – 27 December 1944), better known as Colonel Fabien, was one of the two members of the French Communist Party who perpetrated the first assassinations of German personnel during the Occupation of France during the Second World War.