The Hampstead War Nurseries and the origins of the Anna Freud Centre
Compiled by Dr. Inge Pretorius for the AFC Open Afternoon, 17th September 2006.
When Austria was overtaken by Nazi Germany, Sigmund Freud and his family fled Vienna, in June 1938. After spending some time in temporary accommodation, the Freud family moved into 20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 in 1939. With the death of her father and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Anna Freud - Sigmund's youngest daughter - threw herself into work. Recognising the need to provide shelters for children and their families who were rendered refugees or homeless by the war, she planned a temporary wartime shelter for children who were political refugees from concentration camps, for orphans and children whose parents were engaged in the war, as well as for "bombed-out" families. However, it soon became apparent that there was a great need for a more permanent residence for children who were considered "billeting problems", that is, those who could not be evacuated without their mothers or who had developed difficulties in foster care situations (Young-Bruehl, 1985).
Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham opened the first nursery in 1941, funded by the British War Relief Society, as well as the American Foster Parents' Plan for War Children (now known as the "Plan"). The Foster Parents' Plan for War Children aimed to help all children who suffered as the result of war conditions, irrespective of nationality, race or religion. Anna Freud's project rapidly expanded into three houses which were included in the Foster Parents' Plan for War Children under the name of the "Hampstead Nursery" (Burlingham and A. Freud, 1942) or the "Hampstead War Nurseries" (Hellman, 1983) and which cared for 191 children during the war years.
"Children's Rest Centre"
The first nursery - the "Children's Rest Centre" - opened at 13 Wedderburn Road in London in January 1941. Most of the 10 - 12 children who came to the Children's Rest Centre - some with their mothers - were from the East End of London, which had been reduced to rubble in the first bombings of the city, known as 'the Blitz'.
Left: The Children's Rest Centre at 13 Wedderburn Road