Modern Times

Paul Johnson writes: When they broke into Freud’s flat in Vienna, his wife put her housekeeping money on the table: ‘Won’t the gentlemen help themselves?’ It required intervention by Roosevelt and Mussolini – and a ransom of 250,000 Austrian schillings – to get the old man permission to leave. He had to sign a statement testifying he had been well-treated, to which he appended the words ‘I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone.’ The Germans were delighted. The bitter joke was beyond them. So was pity. Freud’s four aged sisters chose not to move: all died in the gas-ovens later.