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parents were strong atheists, and no religious instruction or environment was provided for the
child. (The absence in Freiberg of any serious Judaism in Freud’s home would have been a
similar situation.) This young Irish nanny grew to love the boy very much, and because of
this she could think of no better gift than to baptize him. She did this at home without
the boy’s being aware of it. The child, now grown up to be a prominent New York professional,
presumably doesn’t know to this day that he was baptized years ago. Just prior to the baptism,
the family had ad a dangerous automobile accident while traveling in New England with the
nanny. No one had been injured, but the accident had raised the issue of the boy’s possible
death. This event, analogous to the death of Julius Freud, precipitated the concern on the
nanny’s part and resulted in her baptizing the child.
There is some interesting and relevant material bearing on this issue. Martin Freud (Sigmund’s oldest son), in his autobiography, Glory Reflected (1957), a book that gives much information about the Freud home, has mentioned that his younger sister Anna had a nanny. This was in Vienna just at the turn of the century. Martin Freud, writing 60 years later, recalled her very well; even though this was his sister’s nanny, he wrote, “Still, that nanny, Josefine, had great influence over me.”88 He continued: My father [Sigmund] described his own nurse as an old and ugly woman, a Catholic, who used to take him to her church services in Freiberg, possibly with the idea of laying the early foundations of a conversion. I do not think for one moment that Josefine had any thoughts of this kind, but one day when I was with her alone, the other children being left at home for some reason I have forgotten, she took me into the nearby Votivkirche to a service. The church was crowded; the ceremonial was magnificent and colorful, and I was greatly impressed by the preacher: but I suspect Josefine’s object was merely to sit down, not to impress a little Jewish boy with the splendor and dignity of a Catholic service. Possibly she needed spiritual food, and as she could not, or dared not, dump me anywhere, she towed me in behind her.89 Several comments are salient here. The expression, “possibly with the idea of laying the early foundations of a conversion,” sounds very much as if the family, at least in retrospect, was suspicious about this with respect to Freud’s nanny. In addition, rather surprisingly, the Sigmund Freuds had a serious Catholic nanny for their children, just as Freud had had himself. (Josefine was probably at Mass because it was a holy day of obligation.) Also noteworthy is that after 60 years, even this one visit to a Catholic service was still memorable for Martin Freud. Apparently it was rather common for a nanny to have lasting effects on the life of the child in her charge. Sencourt, a friend and biographer of |