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Escape from Nazism and final years

In 1930, Freud was awarded the Goethe Prize in recognition of his contributions to psychology and to German literary culture. In January 1933, the Nazis took control of Germany, and Freud's books were prominent among those they burned and destroyed. Freud quipped: “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books.”

Freud continued to maintain this optimistic underestimate of the Nazi threat and remained determined to stay in Vienna, even following the Anschluss of 13 March 1938 in which Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and the violent outbursts of anti-Semitism that ensued.)

Ernest Jones, the then President of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), flew into Vienna from London via Prague on 15 March determined to get Freud to change his mind and seek exile in Britain. This prospect and the shock of the arrest and interrogation of Anna Freud by the Gestapo finally persuaded Freud it was time to leave Vienna. Jones left for London the following week with a list Freud provided of the party of émigrés for whom immigration permits would be required. Back in London Jones used his personal acquaintance with the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, (they we both members of the same ice-skating club) to expedite the granting of permits. There were seventeen in all, including work permits where relevant. Jones also used his influence in scientific circles, persuading the President of the Royal Society, Sir William Bragg, to write to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, requesting to good effect that diplomatic pressure be applied in Berlin and Vienna on Freud’s behalf. Freud also had support from American diplomats, notably his ex-patient and American ambassador to France, William Bullitt.

The departure from Vienna began in stages throughout April and May 1938. Freud's grandson, Ernst Halberstadt, and Freud’s son Martin’s wife and children left for Paris in April. Freud’s sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, left for London on 5 May, Martin Freud the following week and Freud’s daughter Mathilde and her husband, Robert Hollitscher, on 24 May.

By the end of the month, however, arrangements for Freud’s own departure for London had become stalled, mired in a legally tortuous and financially extortionate process of negotiation with the Nazi authorities. It was fortunate for Freud that the Nazi appointed Kommissar put in charge of his assets and those of the IPA proved to be sympathetic to his plight. Anton Sauerwald had studied chemistry at Vienna University under Professor Josef Herzig, a life-long friend of Freud’s. He evidently retained, notwithstanding his Nazi Party allegiance, a respect for their professional standing. Sauerwald was expected to disclose details of all Freud’s bank accounts to his superiors and follow their instructions to destroy the historic library of books housed in the offices if the IPA. In the event he did neither, removing evidence of Freud’s foreign bank accounts to his own safe-keeping and arranging the storage of the books in the Austrian National Library where they remained until the end of the war.

Though Sauerwald’s intervention lessened the financial burden of the tax on Freud’s declared assets, other substantial charges were levied in relation to the debts of the IPA and the valuable collection of antiquities Freud possessed. Fortunately for Freud Princess Marie Bonaparte, the most eminent and wealthy of his French followers, was on hand in Vienna to make the necessary funds available. Sauerwald, who had just received instructions to transform Freud's home into an Race Institute for the study of Aryan superiority, hastily signed the necessary exit visas and Freud, his wife Martha and daughter, Anna, left Vienna on the Orient Express on 4 June, accompanied by their household staff and a doctor. They arrived in Paris the following day where they stayed as guests of Marie Bonaparte and arrived at Victoria Station, London on the 6 June.

Many famous names were soon to call and pay their respects, notably Salvador Dali, Stefan Zweig, Leonard and Virginia Woolf and H.G. Wells. Representatives of the Royal Society called with the Society’s Charter for Freud to sign himself into membership. Marie Bonaparte arrived in June to discuss the fate of Freud’s four elderly sisters left behind in Vienna. Her subsequent attempts to get them exit visas failed and they were all to die in Nazi concentration camps. In the Spring of 1939 Anton Sauerwald arrived to see Freud, ostensibly to discuss matters relating to the assets of the IPA. He was able to do Freud one last favour. He returned to Vienna to drive Hans Pichler, Freud’s Viennese cancer specialist, to London to operate on the worsening condition of Freud’s cancerous jaw.

Sauerwald was tried and imprisoned in 1945 by an Austrian court for his activities as a Nazi Party official. Responding to a plea from his wife, Anna Freud wrote to confirm that Sauerwald “used his office as our appointed commissar in such a manner as to protect my father”. Her intervention secured his release from jail in 1947.

In the Freuds new home at 20 Maresfield Garden, Hampstead, North London, Freud’s Vienna consulting room was recreated in faithful detail. He continued to see patients there until the terminal stages of his illness.

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