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Mankind's only hope is a cult of comedy.
Sigmund Freud left Vienna in May 1938, two months after the German annexation of Austria. During those two months his apartment had been searched, his bank accounts had been confiscated, his daughter Anna had been arrested and released, and his psychoanalytic group had been shut down, its records destroyed. International pressure was applied to the German government, and he was allowed to leave with his immediate family, but only after he had signed the following statement:
I, Prof. Freud, hereby confirm that after the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich I have been treated by the German authorities and particularly by the Gestapo with all the respect and consideration due to my scientific reputation, that I could live and work in full freedom, that I could continue to pursue my activities in every way I desired, that I found full support from all concerned in this respect, and that I have not the slightest reason for any complaint.7a
Ernest Jones, who reports this incident in his biography of Freud, and was himself instrumental in getting Freud out of Austria, explains,
Freud had, of course, no compunction about signing it, but he asked if he might be allowed to add a sentence which was: “I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone.”
Freud could easily have explained and analyzed this ironic statement in the face of such danger. The particular type of comedy he