Freud's War tells of the thrilling story of the Freud family's escape from the Nazis in Austria and their exile in Britain.
Based on primary sources, many published for the first time, Helen Fry's Freuds' War begins with Martin Freud's experiences of growing up in Vienna as Sigmund Freud's eldest son.
Based on primary sources, many published for the first time, a new book by historian Helen Fry called Freuds' War begins with Martin Freud's experiences of growing up in Vienna as Sigmund Freud's eldest son. It provides a window onto life in one of the most prominent of Viennese households. The story then spans the turbulent years of the First World War in which three of Sigmund Freud's sons fought. They, like so many Austrians, were fiercely patriotic and did not think twice about fighting for their country. Ironically less than twenty years later that would count for nothing when the Nazis annexed their country. At the end of the First World War, Martin was taken prisoner by the British and spent nine months in a camp in Italy. After the war, he settled down to married life, having married Esti Brucker on 7 December 1919, on his 30th birthday. In 1932 he took over his father's business interests as manager of the International Psychoanalytical Press (Verlag). This was a period of political unrest in Vienna, especially throughout the 1930s when Austria experienced menacing threats from her neighbour Germany.
By far the most dramatic and dangerous period for the Freud family came in March 1938 when Hitler annexed Austria in the Anschluss. Sigmund Freud and his family were immediately at risk and that becomes apparent when his home and the Verlag (Press) are raided less than twenty-four hours after Hitler made his entry into Vienna amidst almost messianic acclaim. There followed an intense period of just over two months when diplomatic efforts began from the highest level in Britain and America to get Freud out of Austria. Reading of the events at this time, it becomes clear just how close the family came to peril. Emigration was by no means assured in those early months. The book follows the narrow escape of Freud with his family from the clutches of the Nazis to safety in England. Just a couple of years later, events took an unexpected in Britain when both Martin Freud and his son Walter Freud were interned as ‘enemy aliens' and detained behind barbed wire along with around 30,000 other German and Austrian internees. Release from internment camps came for them when they enlisted in the only unit in the British army open to enemy aliens: the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps. Martin volunteered in the autumn of 1940; Walter from internment in Australia in 1941. Correspondence between father and son during this period reveals the intense frustrations at internment and skills wasted in the army. In 1943 Walter's chance came to contribute something much more direct for the war when he was approached with a view to undergoing ‘special duties'. After a period of intense training, this turned out to be with Special Operations Executive. In the spring of 1945, Walter was parachuted behind enemy lines back into southern Austria in a blind drop. Using extracts from his unpublished memoirs Before the Anticlimax, the book reconstructs his lone mission in enemy territory after he was dropped at the wrong height and landed miles away from the intended drop zone without his colleagues. Finally, he made his way to the strategic airfield of Zeltweg and through negotiations with local Nazi dignitaries secured it for British forces.
There was nothing like a hero's welcome for Walter when he finally flew back to England via Paris, even though his escapades behind enemy lines had become legendary amongst the men who met at the Special Forces Club in London. His story does not end there. Not yet demobilized, in August 1945 he was sent to Germany with War Crimes Investigation Unit on the hunt for named Nazi War Criminals and gathering evidence for specific cases for the war crimes tribunals. That period took him to Denmark where he met his future wife Annette Krarup. Her family had been involved in getting Jews out of Copenhagen to Sweden in 1943 and also been actively involved in the Danish Resistance. After the war, Walter Freud completed his degree at Loughborough and settled down to a career, mainly with British Oxygen Company.
Despite his worldwide reputation as the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud's security in his native Vienna changed overnight when Hitler's forces annexed Austria on 12 March 1938. His books had already been burned across Germany, and now he and his family were at immediate risk.
Helen Fry opens a window onto The Life of a prominent Jewish family in pre-war Vienna and describes how this most famous of families became exiled from its homeland by the Nazis.
Helen Fry, who lives in North London, is an honorary fellow in the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies at University College London. She is the author of several books including The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens and Music and Men: The Life and Loves of Harriet Cohen. Helen is also a Development Associate and Jewish History specialist for BritishLocalHistory.com - the new website where the public can assist in building a local history resource which is relevant for both the history dates we know about and the social history tales and events we might not be aware of.
Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, NW3 5SX
