In January 1955, the Hungarian born and trained psychoanalyst – and refugee -Andrew Peto, read a paper to the Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Psychoanalysts, in Adelaide, South Australia. Written by his late wife, the child analyst, Erszebet Kardos, ‘A Contribution to the Theory of Play’ was the summation of her ideas developed over the previous decade’s work as a child analyst in Budapest. Up until 1949 Peto was secretary of the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society.  As Peto explained in his introduction, Erszebet was murdered by the Arrow Cross in Budapest, in January 1945. In 1949 after the Soviet Union took complete control, the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society was dissolved voluntarily. Peto then turned his mind to Australia and applied successfully for a Vida. In a separate application  Peto’s new wife, Hannah Peto and her daughter Agnes were also granted visas. The Peto family finally made landfall in Australia, at Perth, on 28 April 1950. They travelled on in Melbourne where they stayed with Clara Geroe and her family. By 1951 the family had moved to Sydney.

Prior to the war, in early 1939, Andrew Peto and Elizabeth Kardos were part of a group of European analysts led by Klara Lazar Geroe that applied for visas to New Zealand. But the government refused them, perhaps on the advice of Dr Stuart Moore, who had stated, at the time, that psychoanalysis would not find much support in that country. At the time, the Australian Branch of the British Medical Association strongly campaigned against admitting European-qualified doctors. But following Kristallnact in Germany, the Australian High Commissioner in London, Stanley Bruce recommended Australia change its policies and admit 30,000 Jewish refugees.  Mr Carrodus, head of the Department of Interior, and charged with the administration of refugee matters, cut the proposed intake to 15,000. The government continued to prefer British migrants

Encouraged by Ernest Jones, the Geroe family successfully applied for a Visa to Australia. Kardos and Peto also applied, following the Geroes, to  Australia House in London.  But while the Geroe application, made in her husband’s name was being considered, Kardos and Peto were advised that a previous application, made directly to Australia, would be considered only in Australia.   Vilmos Geroe, a qualified accountant with experience in a factory making fire-proof bricks provided the grounds for  acceptance.

.Peto did not stay long in Australia. He and his family departed for New York in October 1956, six and a half years after their arrival.  During his time in Australia Peto had worked with Geroe, Frank Graham and Roy Coupland Winn to establish the Australian Society of Psychoanalysts in 1952, drawing together the interests of the newly formed  Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis (1951) and the Melbourne Institute. He conducted seminars, wrote papers, provided supervision and took on a trainee, Maida Hall. Janet Neild, a child analyst who had begun her training with Clara Geroe, moved from Melbourne to Sydney for further education and supervision with him.

The reason commonly given for Peto’s departure centres around the BMA’s reluctance to recognize Peto as a medical practitioner. But upon  considering the opening lines of his paper, it is to wonder about the trauma Peto carried with him along with the rejection of this new country in which he had tried to settle.  It may be that he saw Australia as a stop along the way to the United States.  But the question remains. What if… the Australian Department of Interior had been less locked into its preference for British migrants? And What if… the BMA had been more open? There are clearly more stories to tell.

Here is a link to the introduction to Kardos’ paper – Peto’s elegy to the brilliant woman who was his wife. An original copy is in Geroe’s archive .in the State Library of Victoria