Sigmund Freud saved by Nazi admirer
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was saved from Hitler’s persecution of the Jews by a long-standing Nazi who was fascinated with his work, a new book reveals.
The fate of Freud and his family in Vienna hung in the balance after Hitler’s forces took over Austria in 1938. The psychoanalyst was first protected, then helped to escape to Britain, by Anton Sauerwald, a Nazi who had been put in charge of his assets.
In twists of Freudian complexity, Sauerwald was put on trial after the second world war accused of plundering the Freud family wealth — only to be saved after the intervention of one of Freud’s daughters.
The full story has emerged thanks to research by David Cohen, author of The Escape of Sigmund Freud, published by JR Books.
By the 1930s Freud was famous in Europe and the United States for his pioneering work on the unconscious. He had founded the International Psychoanalytical Association with Carl Jung and helped to start a publishing business.
His success had brought financial rewards and the family lived comfortably in Vienna. However, the Nazis ordered all Jews to declare their wealth and asserted that “all Jewish assets are assumed to have been improperly acquired”.
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The fate of Freud and his family in Vienna hung in the balance after Hitler’s forces took over Austria in 1938. The psychoanalyst was first protected, then helped to escape to Britain, by Anton Sauerwald, a Nazi who had been put in charge of his assets.
In twists of Freudian complexity, Sauerwald was put on trial after the second world war accused of plundering the Freud family wealth — only to be saved after the intervention of one of Freud’s daughters.
The full story has emerged thanks to research by David Cohen, author of The Escape of Sigmund Freud, published by JR Books.
By the 1930s Freud was famous in Europe and the United States for his pioneering work on the unconscious. He had founded the International Psychoanalytical Association with Carl Jung and helped to start a publishing business.
His success had brought financial rewards and the family lived comfortably in Vienna. However, the Nazis ordered all Jews to declare their wealth and asserted that “all Jewish assets are assumed to have been improperly acquired”.