The family of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, lived in Austria and Germany until the 1930s before emigrating to England, Canada, and the United States. Several of Freud's descendants and relatives have become well known in different fields.
Freud's parents and siblings Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was born to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg in Mähren, in what then was the Austrian Empire (now called Příbor and in the Czech Republic). He was the eldest child of Jacob Freud (1815–1896), a wool merchant, and his third wife, Amalia Nathansohn (1835–1930). Jacob Freud was born in Tysmenitz, then part of the Austrian Partition of Poland called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now called Tysmenytsia and in Ukraine), the eldest child of Schlomo and Peppi (Pessel), née Hoffmann, Freud. His two brothers, Abae (–) and Josef (1825–1897), had difficulties that concerned the family, the former because of his mentally incapacitated children, the latter because his business dealings came under criminal investigation.
Jacob Freud had two surviving children from his first marriage to Sally Kanner (1829–1852): Emanuel (1832–1914) Philipp (1836–1911)
Jacob's second marriage (1852–1855) to Rebecca (family of origin uncertain) was childless.
Amalia Freud was the daughter of Jacob Nathansohn (1805–1865) and Sara Wilenz born in Brody, then also part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and now also part of Ukraine. They later moved to Vienna. Her brother Hermann (1822–1895), who was a stockbroker in Odessa in the Russian Empire, was Freud's favourite uncle. She had three other brothers: Nathan (b. c.1825), Adolf (c.1830–1862) and Julius (1857–1858). Jacob and Amalia Freud had eight children:
Sigmund (birth name Sigismund Schlomo; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) Julius (October 1857 – 15 April 1858) Anna (31 December 1858 – 11 March 1955) Regina Debora (nickname Rosa; 21 March 1860 – 1942) Marie (nickname Mitzi; 22 March 1861 – 1942) Esther Adolfine (nickname Dolfi; 23 July 1862 – 1942) Pauline Regine (nickname Pauli; 3 May 1864 – 1943) Alexander Gotthold Ephraim (19 April 1866 – 23 April 1943)
Julius Freud died in infancy.
Anna married Eli Bernays (1860–1921), the elder brother of Sigmund's wife Martha. There were four daughters: Judith (1885–1977), Lucy (1886–1980), Hella (1893–1994), Martha (1894–1979) and one son, Edward (1891–1995). In 1892 the family moved to the United States where Edward Bernays became a major influence in modern public relations. He married Doris E. Fleischman (1891–1980) who became known as a prominent feminist activist. Their daughters are Doris Bernays Held (b. 1929), a psychotherapist who married Richard Held (1922–2016) a neuroscientist, and Anne Bernays (b. 1930) a writer and editor, as was her husband, Justin Kaplan (1925–2014).
Rosa (Regina Deborah Graf-Freud) married a lawyer, Heinrich Graf (1852–1908). Their son, Hermann (1897–1917) was killed in the First World War; their daughter, Cäcilie (1899–1922), committed suicide after an unhappy love affair. In March or early April 1943 Rosa was transported from Vienna to the Treblinka extermination camp where she was murdered.Benveniste, Daniel (2015) The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna and W. Ernest Freud: Three Generations of Psychoanalysis IPBooks.net. Kindle Edition pp. 279-81
Mitzi (Marie Freud) married her cousin Moritz Freud (1857–1922). There were three daughters: Margarethe (1887–1981), Lily (1888–1970), Martha (1892–1930) and one son, Theodor (1904–1923) who died in a drowning accident. Martha, who was known as Tom, worked as a children's book illustrator. After the suicide of her husband, Jakob Seidmann, a journalist, she took her own life. Their daughter, Angela, was sent to live with relatives in Haifa. Lily became an actress and in 1917 married the actor Arnold Marlé. They subsequently adopted Angela. In July 1942 Mitzi was transported from Vienna to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The following September she was transported to the Maly Trostinets extermination camp, near Minsk, where she was murdered.
Dolfi (Esther Adolfine Freud) did not marry and remained in the family home to care for her parents. In July 1942 Dolfi was transported from Vienna to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where she died of malnutrition on 29 September 1942.Roudinesco, Elizabeth (2016), Freud: In His Time and Ours Harvard University Press, p. 415
Pauli (Pauline Regine Winternitz-Freud) married Valentine Winternitz (1859–1900) and emigrated to the United States where their daughter Rose Beatrice (1896–1969) was born. After the death of her husband she and her daughter returned to Europe. Rose (known as Rosi) married Ernst Waldinger, a poet, in 1923. They moved to New York City after the war where a daughter, Ruth, was born. In July 1942 Pauli was transported from Vienna to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The following September she was transported to the Maly Trostinets extermination camp, near Minsk, where she was murdered.
Alexander Freud married Sophie Sabine Schreiber (1878–1970). They fled the Nazi regime in Austria with their son, Harry (1909–1968), and emigrated to Canada. Harry subsequently emigrated to the United States where he married Leli Margaret Horn.
Both Freud's half-brothers emigrated to Manchester, England, shortly before the rest of the Freud family moved to Vienna in 1860.
Emanuel Freud married Maria Rokachova (1836–1923) in Freiberg where their first three surviving children were born: Johann known as John (1855-1936), who was the "inseparable playmate" of Freud's early childhood, Pauline (1856–1944) and Bertha (1859-1940). Their other children were born in Manchester: Matilda (1862–1868), Harriet (1865–1868), Henrietta (1866 infant death) and Soloman (1870–1945, known as Sam). None of the children married. Research into the life of John has provided evidence that he moved to London and formed a partnership with Annie Newport (1868-1934) and had one child, Ethel Rose (1892-1959).
Philipp Freud married Bloomah Frankel (1838-1925). There were two children: Pauline (1873–1951) who married Fritz Hartwig (1881–1958); and Morris (1876-1938. Died in Port Elizabeth, South Africa). The death of the childless Pauline in 1951 marked the end of the Manchester Freuds.Ferris, Paul Dr Freud: A Life, London: Sinclair-Stevenson 1975, pp. 243–44.
Freud visited his half-brothers and their families in England twice, in 1875 while still a student, and again in 1908.Clark 1980, pp. 36, 252 He kept in touch through a regular correspondence with Sam Freud. They would eventually meet again in London in 1938.
Persecution and emigration
The systematic persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany and the ensuing Holocaust had a profound effect on the family. Four of Freud's five sisters were murdered in concentration camps: in 1942 Mitzi Freud (eighty-one) and Paula Winternitz (seventy-eight) were transported to Theresienstadt and taken from there to the Maly Trostinets extermination camp, near Minsk, where they were murdered. In 1943 Dolfi Freud died in Theresienstadt of internal bleeding, probably due to advanced starvation and Rosa Graf (eighty-two) was deported to Treblinka, where she was murdered.Benveniste, Daniel (2015) The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna, and W. Ernest Freud: Three Generations of Psychoanalysis IPBooks.net. Kindle Edition pp. 279-81 Freud's brother, Alexander, escaped with his family to Switzerland shortly before the Anschluss and they subsequently emigrated to Canada. Freud's sons Oliver, a civil engineer, and Ernst Ludwig, an architect, lived and worked in Berlin until Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 after which they fled with their families to France and England respectively. Oliver Freud and his wife later emigrated to the United States. Their daughter Eva Freud had remained in France and died there of an infection contracted during an abortion.Roudinesco, Elizabeth (2016), Freud: In His Time and Ours Harvard University Press, p. 401
Freud and his remaining family left Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 after Ernest Jones, the then President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, secured immigration permits for them to move to Britain. Permits were also secured for Freud's housekeeper, Paula Fichtl, his doctor, Max Schur and his family, as well as a number of Freud's colleagues and their families. Freud's grandson, Ernst Halberstadt, was the first to leave Vienna on 28 March, initially for Paris, before going on to London where after the war he would adopt the name Ernest Freud and train as a psychoanalyst. Next to leave for Paris were Ernestine, Sophie and Walter Freud, the wife and children of Freud's eldest son, Martin. Walter went on to join his father in London. His mother and sister remained in France and subsequently emigrated to the United States. His maternal grandmother, Ida Drucker, was deported from Biarritz in 1942 and murdered in Auschwitz.
Freud's sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, was the first to leave for London early in May 1938. She was followed by his son, Martin, on 14 May and then by his daughter Mathilde and her husband, Robert Hollitscher, on 24 May. Freud, his wife and daughter, Anna, left Vienna on 4 June on the Orient Express, accompanied by their housekeeper Paula Fichtl and Dr Josephine Stross. Stross was a late replacement as medical supervisor for Freud, summoned after his physician Max Schur became incapacitated by appendicitis. They arrived in Paris the following day, staying at the home of Marie Bonaparte before boarding the night train to London via Calais.Benveniste, Daniel (2015) The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna, and W. Ernest Freud: Three Generations of Psychoanalysis New York: IPBooks Their arrival at Victoria Station on the morning of 6 June attracted widespread press coverage. Freud's architect son, Ernst, arranged temporary accommodation for the Freuds in north London at 39 Elsworthy Road before the new family home was established in Hampstead at 20 Maresfield Gardens in September 1938. Ernst designed modifications of the building including the installation of an electric lift. The study and library areas were arranged to create the atmosphere and visual impression of Freud's Vienna consulting rooms.
War years
After Sigmund Freud's death in 1939, Martha and Anna Freud made their home available to relatives and friends fleeing the Nazi occupation of Europe. In 1941, following the death of Martha's sister, Minna, Dorothy Burlingham (1891–1979) became a permanent member of the household. From their first meeting in Vienna in 1925, Anna and Dorothy developed "intimate relations that closely resembled those of lesbians", although Anna "categorically denied the existence of a sexual relationship".Roudinesco (2016), p. 249 Dorothy had been a patient of Freud's and her four children, Bob, Mary (Mabbie), Katrina, and Michael, were among the first of Anna's after she had begun her own psychoanalytic practice. During and after the war they collaborated in establishing the Hampstead War Nursery that provided therapy and residential care for children whose lives had been disrupted by the war. Their work laid the foundations for the post-war Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic, founded in 1952 (later renamed the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families).