[A few remarks on Freud's attitude to the Nazis, "Jo as Jew"]

My aim is to put the question of Freud's attitude to Nazism in historical perspective, that is to get the facts straight. From the study of some documents it can be established that from the very first symptoms of Nazism, Freud tore up his Germanic roots in order to base himself essentially on Jewish values. His advice is to give up fighting "the spiritual currents of the Germany of today". He says of the Germans: "Let us give them up" (1923). "Should we not leave to itself this people abandoned by God" (1932). Reproaching Freud with having been indifferent towards or even acquiescing in the fate of German psycho-analysis overlooks the concrete situation of Freud and European Jews in general during the "brown years". As for those, few in number one hopes, who today regard Freud's jubilant humour when, on the eve of his departure from Vienna, he was ordered to state that he had been correctly treated and is supposed to have written: "I can warmly recommend the Gestapo to everyone", as genuine support for the Gestapo, my word are not addressed to them. They have passed a barrier beyond which my ticket is no longer valid.