At the end
of October 1945, at Harry Freud's insistence, Sauerwald was arrested and the
police started to investigate every aspect of his past. As soon as he was
appointed Truehandler to the Freud family, on March 15 1938, Sauerwald
controlled not only their assets but in effect their destiny. Freud wrote to
his friend Arnold Zweig: "The people in their worship of antisemitism are
entirely at one with their brothers in the Reich." A man held a pistol to
Freud's son's head. 'Why not shoot him,' he shouted Freud had to cope with the
Anschluss in terrible physical pain.
Sauerwald
examined the records of the Freud family and of the Verlag; he read the letters
people had sent to all members of the family. There is a note appended to the
court proceedings after the war that Sauerwald had estimated Freud's worth at
between 2 and 3 million schillings, a considerable fortune. After having read
Freud's books, Sauerwald did not disclose to his superiors that Freud had many
secret bank accounts abroad. Instead, he took the evidence back to his own
apartment, where he had a locked box for important documents. Persuading Freud
Ironically, Freud only agreed to try to leave Vienna after Anna, his beloved
daughter, had been arrested by the Gestapo.
As he
wondered whether or not to sign the papers for Freud's exit visa, Sauerwald got
a new order from Berlin. Sauerwald finally signed the papers saying that there
was no impediment to Freud leaving. Max Schur said that no one could understand
why Sauerwald had saved the Freuds and thought that reading Freud's books had
changed Sauerwald's attitude. Freud's brother, Alexander, met Sauerwald and
asked him directly what his motives had been. And Sauerwald said “The Führer of
course knows best and realises that the Fatherland is in a state of siege. The
Jews, due to their internationalist leanings and their tendency towards
individualistic behaviour, cannot form a reliable element of the population.
Thus they have to be eliminated. This does not mean, however, that an
individual should not be permitted to alleviate individual hardship in selected
cases.”
As for
Sauerwald, he was finally released after Anna Freud wrote to say that he had
indeed helped the family but by then he had spent 18 months in detention.
