Once I saw a play about Eleanor Roosevelt where she recounts a scene of a ship returning to the US at the end of WWWII. She says that several nurses committed suicide by jumping to the deck, because they couldn’t stand the cheering of the crowd after the horror they had seen. Did this really happen?

⚠️ Important update: according to reviews I read, the incident was meant to have happened at the end of WWI, not WWII, and it was meant to have happened on the ship on which FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt sailed home from Europe.

This review at DCTheatreScene.com refers to the event in question, and the reviewer can find no historical basis for it:

“The play, covering three years of Mrs. Roosevelt’s life (framed by an incident which occurred shortly after FDR’s death in 1945), relies heavily on two events for which I can find no evidence in history — the flirtation with the harmonica-playing soldier, which ends in a soap opera-ish twist, and a bizarre incident on the troop ship carrying the Roosevelts home from Europe.”

From dcmetrotheaterarts.com :

“Upon her return to New York, the celebration goes awry with two nurses committing suicide because it was crazily shouted, “The donuts are poisoned!”

I have no idea what the donuts are about. In my memory of the scene, the nurses commit suicide because they can see the cheering crowd and parade atmosphere.