Sophia de Vries (1901-1999) was a Classical Adlerian Psychologist, a contemporary of Jung, Freud, Montessori, and of course Adler. Among her many other life events, de Vries lived through the Nazi occupation of her native Holland. Her doctoral studies were interrupted at this time because she refused to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler, which presumably left her some spare time for fooling the Nazis:

We fooled the Nazis as much as possible. And maybe as Adlerians we could easily see through what they were doing. You see, they functioned in a compartmentalized way. And one office functioned by its own, and had its pride in bringing out the best. And the other office, exactly the same, and the third one exactly the same. But they didn't connect so much with each other. So the one didn't know about the other. And we found that out very quickly. They confiscated everything. They confiscated, for instance, bicycles. Well, I needed a bicycle, so I went to one office to get a permit for my bicycle. And they asked me what I needed it for and I said, "I'm a psychologist." Oh, that was alright, they didn't ask what kind of a psychologist, because that belonged to another office. So you didn't ask that question! And then I had my bicycle, which was very dangerous, because I knew that it could be taken any time. And after I had used it for the purpose I needed it (that was to go to another city for the funeral of a member of the family) we took the bicycle apart, hid it again. And then, of course, one day they came to the door and said, "You have a bicycle," and I said, "Well, you know you confiscate bicycles on the road, how could I keep a bicycle?" This was a question, and the man turned around and walked off. So I kept my bicycle, be it in pieces! (laughter) That was the way we treated the Nazis! You know?

Comments

Adam

Apparently a favourite pasttime, even today, in Holland if a Dutchman sees a German riding a bike, is to call out "hey! Give me my grandfather's bike back!', referring to all the bikes the Germans confiscated and used to retreat on after the invasion... ;)

Treadly and Me

Heh Well that certainly fits in with the story that de Vries tells!