...Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. In the July 1932 Hitler and the Nazis became the largest political party in Germany and on the 30th of January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany.
One of the main objectives of the Nazi regime was to redraw the map of post-World War I Europe.
On the 12th of March German troops crossed the border. They were not met with armed resistance, but with cheers and flowers.
Terrified Jews, leftists and Schuschnigg supporters tried to flee Austria.
They raced towards the country’s borders, hoping to reach them before they were closed. Some managed to escape, but most were trapped in a rapidly Nazifiying Austria.
Among Austrian Jews who did not flee the country was Eduard Bloch with his family. However, he was in a different position than the rest of Austrian Jews as he would be protected by Adolf Hitler himself. Even in 1937, Hitler had inquired about Bloch's well-being and called him an Edeljude ("noble Jew"). Hitler also said “ if all Jews were like him, there would be no Jewish question”.
On the 13th of March, Austrian Nazi Chancellor Seyss-Inquart signed the law called the “Reunification of Austria with Germany”. This law, sometimes called the Anschluss law, formally incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany and gave the Anschluss the air of legality. On the 13th of March, Adolf Hitler visited his parents' grave in Leonding.
Austrians welcomed Hitler warmly as he traveled first to Linz and then on to Vienna. Thousands turned out to greet the Führer and on the 15th of March he spoke to a huge crowd in Vienna’s Heldenplatz, a large square in the center of Vienna.
For Austria’s approximately 200,000 Jews, the Anschluss marked a terrible turning point. Many decided to try to leave Austria and lines appeared at consulates across the city of Vienna.
However, Eduard Bloch was not among them. After the 66-year-old Bloch wrote a letter to Hitler asking for help, Hitler personally intervened to ensure his safety. Consequently, Eduard Bloch was put under special protection by the Gestapo. He was the only Jew in Linz with this status.
The Blochs remained in their home in Linz without disturbance for nearly three years. Eduard then asked Hitler if he could join his daughter in New York City. =
In October 1940, Eduard Bloch and his wife were able to leave for Lisbon. Portugal was officially neutral during World War II. There they embarked for the United States on board the Spanish ocean liner settling in the New York borough of the Bronx. However, Bloch was no longer able to practice medicine because his medical degree from Austria-Hungary was not recognized.
Eduard Bloch was 73 years old when he died on the 1st of June 1945, barely a month after Hitler's death.