The Escape of Sigmund Freud: Freud's Final Years in Vienna and His Flight from the Nazi Rise

by David Cohen

A month after the Nazis took over Austria on March 12, 1938, every business owned by Jews had a Nazi appointed to run it. For eighty-two- year-old Sigmund Freud, the world's leading psychoanalyst, the appointed "commissar" was a thirty-five-year-old chemist, Anton Sauerwald. Goebbels and Himmler wanted all psychoanalysts, especially Freud, humiliated and, later, killed, and Sauerwald was in a position to seal Freud's fate.

The Escape of Sigmund Freud tells of the Nazi raid on Freud's house produced evidence that would have prevented the Freuds from leaving Austria--yet Sauerwald chose to hide this from his superiors. With never-before-seen material, David Cohen reveals the last two years of Freud's life and the fate of Sauerwald, from the arrest of Freud's daughter, Anna, by the Gestapo; the dramatic saga behind the signing of Freud's exit visa and his eventual escape to London via Paris; to how the Freud family would have the chance to save Sauerwald's life as well.

Genres: Biography, History, World War II, Psychology

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this book is very misleading. You have to plow through more than half of the book to get to that part and I didn't. As it is written by a psychologist (also a writer and filmmaker), many of the chapters deal with psychoanalysis and other important people in that field.
There's plenty of detail but the writing is plodding. The book started to really irritate me and I stopped reading it.

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through occasional flashbacks, letters, journals, and newspaper columns, this nonfiction book focuses on exactly what the title proclaims: the escape of Sigmund Freud, along with many, though not all, of his extended family, from Nazi Germany at a time when prominent Jews were being betrayed and hunted down. One particularly vivid description of their flight takes place aboard the “Orient Express” as the elegant train barrels westward toward safely and freedom. At each stop, Nazis board, check papers, interrogate, intimidate. Freud almost waited too long. Excellent true thriller.

[Tamhack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although, I am not a big fan of Sigmund Freud's philosophy and his thoughts of psychoanalyst (But I do think he and others (Erik Erikson, Erich Fromm, and Carl Jung) were first steps in behavior modification and mindfulness.
Another startling fact is that he suffered from oral cancer:
"Sigmund Freud suffered from oral cancer for the last 16 years of his life. He was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his right maxilla (upper jaw) in 1923. The cancer, likely caused by his heavy cigar smoking habit, led to numerous surgical interventions and radiation therapy. Despite these treatments, the cancer recurred, causing significant pain and disfigurement. He eventually died in 1939, with his friend and physician administering a lethal dose of morphine at his request, due to the unbearable suffering from the cancer.
Freud's cancer was initially diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma of the right hard palate. However, some medical professionals have questioned this diagnosis, suggesting it might have been a cocaine-induced lesion or verrucous squamous cell carcinoma. These alternative diagnoses are based on historical accounts, including his heavy smoking and cocaine use, and the fact that he lived longer than typically expected with a diagnosis of oral cancer. Despite the specific type of cancer, the disease had a devastating impact on his life, causing pain, disfigurement, and ultimately leading to his death."

Another puzzling item was his relationship with his daughter, Anna Freud, and she was a "patient" of his. (https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-t...)
Pg. 171 " When the Nazis arrested her, Anna Freud was forty-two years old. Photos taken when she was just a few years younger show her as an intense, attractive, and very Jewish woman; she liked to wear a beret, which gave her a gamine look. She was the only one of Freud's children who had made success of her career. She was recognized as a brilliant child therapist. She had managed this both because of her relationship with her father, and despite it. They loved, respected, and depended on each other. Freud had some reasons to feel guilty toward her. He knew, even if he did not say it, that she had nver married at least in part because of her devotion to him."

The author in chapter one on pg.15 defines why he wrote the book: how did Anton Sauerwald, a nazi, help Freud's family.

Pg 77 Freud also had Princess Maria Bonaparte (https://www.freud.org.uk/2022/09/20/r...) as a patient.

Pg 47 "Freud had a lifelong interest in Moses, but his attitude toward the prophet was complicated by this ambivalence about Rome."

The conflict between Freud and Jung (https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/couns...)
"While Freud saw the human psyche through the lens of sexual and aggressive drives, with the unconscious as a warehouse of repressed trauma, Jung took a more expansive view.
Jung believed in a collective unconscious shared by all humans, filled with universal symbols and archetypes.
Freud focused on childhood experiences and sexual development, while Jung emphasized lifelong psychological growth and spirituality.
Their split marked a fundamental divide between biological, mechanistic psychology (Freud) and a more mystical, meaning-centered approach (Jung).
Jung’s ideas have particularly influenced fields like personality testing, while Freud’s influence remains strong in psychodynamic therapy and cultural analysis."
https://www.simplypsychology.org/freu...

pg 97 Sauerwald, the Bomb Maker
Pg 170 "... Sauerwald knew he must not let his Nazi superiors suspect. Freud loved Arthur Conan Doyle, who had mad Sherlock Holmes say that when you have eliminated the impossible, the improbable must explain what happened. It was improbable that Sauerwald would help Freud. "
(https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com...)
"Following the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, the Nazi Party made it clear that “all Jewish assets are assumed to have been improperly acquired”. Orderly in their business dealings, the Nazis appointed an official truehandler-trustee to every Jewish business. Anton Sauerwald, a man I had never heard of until the Cohen book came out, was appointed trustee over the estate of Sigmund Freud, specifically to expropriate the psychiatrist’s assets.
Why hadn’t the most famous man in Austria fled to a safe haven abroad, before the German Austrian Anschluss in Mar 1938? Worse still, Freud had to cope with the Anschluss in terrible post-operative pain. Perhaps he thought his fame would save him. Eventually the imminent catastrophe must have become clear, even to Freud, when the Gestapo men took the passports of all the family. His family now had no official papers in a city where not having official papers was a death sentence.
Anton Sauerwald was no unemployed thug. He had published four learned papers in Chemical Monthly, one of the leading journals in the world in the field of chemistry. He had a doctorate from the University of Vienna and was a member of the Nazi party in good standing, an officer and technical expert in the Luftwaffe.
And Anton Sauerwald was no Nazi flunky. He discovered that Freud’s publishing house owed money to its suppliers. Since Jews were not allowed to leave Austria until their companies had paid all their debts. Freud would have needed to find considerable sums of money to pay the company’s debts, as well as the flight tax for his entire family.
Sauerwald’s behaviour was unexpected from a Nazi. Did he see that Freud was a very sick old man and had sympathy for him? Or there may have been a more intellectual reason for Sauerwald softening his attitude towards his charge. The trustee had always been a dilligent professional and it was now his job to administer the Verlag (International Psychoanalytic Press). He wanted to read everything the company had ever published by Freud."

Summary: (https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/boo...)
By Bet­ti­na Berch – May 22, 2012
"Ignore the title! This is actu­al­ly a very quirky, high­ly enter­tain­ing biog­ra­phy of Sig­mund Freud that only pre­tends to focus on his ​“escape” from Vien­na with the assis­tance of Nazi Anton Sauer­wald. Sto­ries of Freud’s fam­i­ly mem­bers and his feuds with var­i­ous col­leagues min­gle with gos­sip about what the great man ate, how he dirt­ied his bed­sheets, and which women he adored. At times, the back­sto­ry — how Vien­na and the psy­cho­an­a­lyt­ic estab­lish­ment accom­mo­dat­ed the Nazis, how the Nazis extract­ed the max­i­mum rev­enue from Jew­ish tar­gets, how Vien­nese Jews coped until they could not any longer — takes cen­ter stage, but the brood­ing Freud is nev­er far from our thoughts. What will it take to make this old man real­ize he has to flee? By the time he final­ly decid­ed he could not live at 19 Berggasse any­more, Freud and his extend­ed fam­i­ly were already liv­ing under a form of self-house arrest, his daugh­ter Anna had been inter­ro­gat­ed by the Gestapo, and the family’s assets were being con­fis­cat­ed. Freud could look out his win­dow and watch Jew­ish shops being loot­ed by ​“respectable” Vien­nese; he could see Jews being beat­en and shot dead by thugs. Freud’s deci­sion, final­ly, to leave Vien­na is the real nail-biter here — the ​“escape” itself is some­thing of an anti­cli­max. Cohen tries to stir up some sym­pa­thy for Sauer­wald, Freud’s Nazi ​“min­der” who cov­ered up some of Freud’s assets and orches­trat­ed his exit, but the man’s role was too ambigu­ous and too mar­gin­al to keep our atten­tion. No mat­ter — this is a book about Freud, not Sauer­wald — and it’s sur­pris­ing­ly engross­ing. Appen­dices, bib­li­og­ra­phy, index."

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

HB from the library -- not so sure that Freud's whole life had to reviewed. I di find it interesting that he some of his notes or writing held confidential for all time. what was the point of keeping those? One would have to understand the psychology and societies of the time in order to understand Freud's thinking. so why hold unto it? I can't believe that someone has not already read this.


The author glorifies his uncle hoping to convince someone that this money changer's staus becomes elavated to Schindler. It did not work for me. The book should have been titled leaving Freud's name out of it. Also he took liberities and repeated gossip with origins from the Nazi's. Repulsive.

[Janis Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freud was one of the most famous people in the world at this time. His plight in Austria and his need to escape should have been the signal to the whole world how ruthless the Nazis were. If the Nazis dared to go after him everyone should have been aware of what was happening to the invisible Jewish people in those countries. We continued to ignore the threat and we bear the shame to this day. This is a testament to the courage of a few people including Marie Bonaparte in aiding those who could not help themselves. This book was excellent.

[Frank Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has some information, some of it gossipy information, that you don't run across in other books; other Freud family members' input, including Freud employees, is interesting; I didn't know about the struggles/accomplishments of all of the extended family members; the contribution of Anton Sauerwald in Freud's escape is important

[Dennis Killian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, what a jumble. Interesting information clumsily hidden under muddled syntax and random thoughts. More “origins of psychoanalysis” and “here is why you should be interested in the author” than anyone would want. There is an interesting story here. But it is only hinted at in this book.

[Luis Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, but you have to be interested in Freud and the history of psychoanalysis to get through it. I really enjoyed it, and will go back to it for information in the future.

[mysilicielka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka, wbrew tytułowi, nie przedstawia wyłącznie samej ucieczki Sigmunda Freuda z okupowanego przez nazistów Wiednia. Minie wiele czasu i stron nim do tego wydarzenia dojdziemy. David Cohen serwuje czytelnikowi coś więcej, robi wszystko, by ukazać nam jak najpełniejszy obraz ówczesnej sytuacji. Dowiemy się więc dużo na temat kondycji psychoanalizy w tamtym okresie, poglądach Żydów na różne sprawy, życia codziennego rodziny Freudów, losów ich znajomych, pacjentów, współpracowników.

Cieszę się, że dzięki tej pozycji, mogłam lepiej poznać postać "ojca psychoanalizy". Przede wszystkim dzięki studiowaniu jego prywatnych listów, więcej dowiadujemy się o nim jako człowieku. Nie miałam chociażby pojęcia o jego bolesnych przeżyciach z rakiem szczęki albo o jego stosunku do własnego pochodzenia. W moich oczach wyszedł z tego portret człowieka pełnego przeciwieństw - był niewierzący, ale dumny ze swojego żydostwa, uwielbiał żartować i śmiać się, chociaż wszystkie portrety przedstawiają go jako poważnego starszego mężczyznę.

Podobało mi się, że autor książki pozostawał przez cały czas obecny. Cohen nie fabularyzuje, nie udaje, że wie dokładnie, co Freud robił czy myślał w danej chwili. Autor zdaje nam relację ze swoim badań, streszcza listy, porównuje źródła z informacjami zawartymi w pracach innych badaczy. Widać, jak doskonale Cohen odnajduje się w tej tematyce, pokazuje nam swój ogrom wiedzy, a jednocześnie robi to w ciekawy i swobodny sposób. Bardzo dobrze i szybko się to czytało. Trudność może tylko sprawiać układ - nie chronologiczny, ale tematyczny. Tekst wydawał mi się przez to miejscami trochę chaotyczny, musiałam uważać na podawane daty, żeby uporządkować sobie w głowie, co i kiedy się działo.

Nigdy nie przepadałam za historią, a jednak co jakiś czas odkrywam książki historyczne i reportaże, które potrafią być ciekawsze od najlepszych kryminałów. Dzięki "Ucieczce..." wiele powtarzanych na lekcjach historii haseł ożyło w mojej głowie. Polecam, warto przeczytać.

[Jarrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow and choppy collection of facts and ideas without clear flow and cohesion.

[Robert Borter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been several years since I read this book but at the time I found it to be quite interesting.

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A figura de Freud é desmistificada e trazida à uma luz mais humana. Além disso, toda a contextualização traz informações muito interessantes sobre o crescer do nazismo, da segunda guerra e do antisemitismo.
Para leigos, a psicanálise é colocada de forma simples e objetiva quando trazida à baila.
Peca apenas pela tradução e revisão.

[Brittney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is easily one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune of reading. The book is not, contrary to the title, about the escape of Sigmund Freud. It is instead a poorly written, unorganized attempt at a biography of Freud’s life.