The Women of Anna Freud’s War Nurseries

In this volume, Christiane Ludwig-Körner describes the lives and work of the staff members of the War Nurseries set up and run by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham during the Second World War.

The Women of Anna Freud’s War Nurseries looks in turn at each of the women who helped run the homes in Hampstead: Alice Goldberger, Sophie and Gertrud Dann, Manna Friedmann, Anneliese Schnurmann, Ilse Hellman and Hansi Kennedy. As young women, they narrowly escaped the Holocaust and dedicated themselves to children who had suffered the same fate. Few arrived with any knowledge of psychoanalytic theories or methods; this volume charts their education from Freud and Burlingham, which eventually lead to both Freud’s independent psychoanalytic child therapy training and the young women’s embarkment on careers as professional analysts. Using case studies throughout, Ludwig-Körner illustrates the intense relationships often experienced between children in care and their analysts/carers, and uses the children of the War Nurseries as examples for how contemporary psychoanalysts can work with children today.

This book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, especially those working with children, as well as scholars and professionals interested in the history of child analysts and childhood trauma.