On March 12, 1938, German troops crossed the border into Austria without firing a single shot. They were met not with armed resistance but with cheers and flowers. Thousands of Austrians greeted Adolf Hitler on his route to Linz and later to Vienna.
Frightened Jews, leftists, and other opponents of the Nazi regime fled toward the country’s borders, hoping to reach them before they were closed. Most, however, were trapped in a rapidly nazifying Austria.
There was, however, one Jew to whom Adolf Hitler granted personal protection and for whose safety he intervened. His name was Eduard Bloch.
Eduard Bloch was born on January 30, 1872, in Frauenberg, then part of Austria-Hungary. He studied medicine in Prague and later served as a medical officer in the Austrian army.
In 1899, he was posted to Linz in Upper Austria, where he opened a private practice in 1901. A year later, he married Lilli Kafka. The couple had a daughter, Trude.
Like most Jews in Linz at the time, the Bloch family was assimilated. Eduard Bloch, who was willing to visit patients at any hour of the night, enjoyed high standing, especially among families of the lower and poorer classes.
One of those families was that of Klara Hitler. Her husband, Alois, had died in 1903. He had been harsh and often irritable, demanding unconditional respect and obedience from his children.
One of those children was Adolf, born in 1889, who would later become the dictator of Germany.
After Alois’s death, Klara sold the house in Leonding and moved to an apartment in Linz. In 1906, she discovered a lump in her breast, which she initially ignored.
In January 1907, after experiencing pain that kept her awake at night, she consulted the family doctor, Eduard Bloch. She explained that she had been busy with her household and had therefore failed to seek medical help earlier.
Bloch decided not to tell Klara herself that she had breast cancer. Instead, he left it to her son Adolf to inform her. Bloch told the then nearly 18-year-old Adolf that his mother had only a slim chance of survival and that a radical mastectomy would be necessary.
The Hitlers were shaken by the news. Bloch later said that Klara Hitler accepted the verdict with the courage he had expected. Deeply religious, she believed her fate was God’s will.
She underwent surgery in Linz, during which the surgeon found that the cancer had already spread to the pleural tissue. Bloch informed Klara’s children that her condition was incurable.
Adolf, who had been in Vienna studying art, returned home to care for his mother, as did his siblings. By October, Klara’s condition had deteriorated rapidly, and Adolf asked Bloch to try a new treatment.
For the following 46 days, from November into early December, Bloch administered daily treatments with iodoform. Klara’s surgical incisions were reopened, and gauze soaked in massive doses of iodoform was applied directly to the tissue to cauterize the cancer cells.
The treatments were extremely painful and led to paralysis in Klara’s throat, making it impossible for her to swallow. Because of the Hitler family’s poor economic situation, Bloch charged reduced fees, and sometimes took no payment at all.
Adolf would never forget this gesture.
The treatments, however, proved unsuccessful. Klara Hitler was 47 years old when she died on December 21, 1907, in her home in Linz. She was buried in Leonding.
In February 1908, Adolf Hitler moved to Vienna to attend the Academy of Fine Arts and become a great artist. That same year, he wrote Bloch a postcard, assuring him of his gratitude and respect. He also expressed his thanks through handmade gifts, including a large wall painting.
When Hitler tried for the second time in October 1908 to gain admission to the Vienna Academy, his drawings were judged so inadequate that he was not even allowed to take the formal examination.
In May 1913, he went to Munich. There he supported himself by selling watercolors and sketches until the First World War, which began on July 28, 1914, gave his life a new direction.
Hitler joined the army, was wounded in 1916 and 1918, and received several decorations. After being partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres, Belgium, in October 1918, he was admitted to a hospital in Pasewalk.
It was there, on November 11, that he received news of the armistice.
After his release from the hospital in November 1918, Hitler returned to Munich. In 1919, he joined the information office of the Bavarian military administration.
In August 1919, Hitler delivered his first sharp anti-Semitic speeches as a course instructor. A month later, he put his anti-Semitic racial ideology into writing for the first time, calling for the removal of Jews from Germany.
In October 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party, later renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or NSDAP. In 1920, he helped draft the party program, which was based on racist anti-Semitism, expansionist nationalism, and hostility toward immigrants.
By 1921, he was the leading figure of the NSDAP. Hitler was an impressive and compelling speaker who attracted a broad following of Germans desperate for change.
In July 1932, Hitler and the National Socialists became the largest political party in Germany. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg.
One of the main goals of the Nazi regime was to redraw the map of Europe after the First World War. Hitler and the Nazis considered the postwar international borders unjust and illegitimate.
The annexation of Austria would bring the Nazis closer to their first goal: uniting all Germans in a National Socialist German Reich.
On March 11, Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg resigned after Hitler threatened invasion. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austria’s interior minister and Hitler’s collaborator, was appointed as his successor.
Austrian Nazis took over the country without firing a single shot.
On March 12, German troops crossed the border. They were welcomed with cheers and flowers.
Frightened Jews, leftists, and Schuschnigg supporters tried to flee Austria and reach the borders before they were closed. Some managed to escape, but most were trapped in the rapidly nazifying country.
Among the Austrian Jews who did not flee was Eduard Bloch, along with his family. He was, however, in a better position than other Austrian Jews because he was personally protected by Adolf Hitler.
As late as 1937, Hitler had inquired about Bloch’s well-being and called him a “noble Jew.” Hitler also said that if all Jews were like him, there would be no Jewish question.
On March 13, Austrian Nazi Chancellor Seyss-Inquart signed the law on the reunification of Austria with the German Reich. This law, also known as the Anschluss law, formally incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany.
On March 13, Adolf Hitler visited his parents’ grave in Leonding. Austrians welcomed him warmly as he traveled first to Linz and then to Vienna. Thousands came to greet the Führer.
On March 15, Hitler spoke to a huge crowd on Vienna’s Heldenplatz, a large square in the city center. Film footage and photos of the crowd appeared in German newsreels and newspapers. The images were meant to demonstrate Austrian enthusiasm for the Anschluss and thereby justify the illegal takeover of another country.
When Hitler returned to Berlin, he was celebrated like a hero.
The referendum of April 10 offered another victory for the propaganda machine. More than 99 percent of Austrians voted in favor of the Anschluss with Nazi Germany.
However, between 300,000 and 400,000 Austrian citizens, including Jews, Roma, and political opponents of the Nazis, were not allowed to take part.
For the approximately 200,000 Austrian Jews, the Anschluss meant a terrible turning point. In the night of March 11 and in the weeks that followed, pogrom-like riots broke out across the country.
Austrian Nazis attacked Jews, beat them, and humiliated them. They forced Jews to scrub streets, clean public toilets, and perform degrading work. Many decided to leave Austria. Long lines formed in front of consulates in Vienna.
Eduard Bloch, however, 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. Eduard Bloch was then placed under special protection by the Gestapo. He was the only Jew in Linz with this status.
Eduard Bloch and his wife lived undisturbed in their house for two weeks after the Anschluss.
On March 28, 1938, they received a visit from the Gestapo. One of the Gestapo officers told Bloch that he was informed Bloch had some souvenirs of the Führer and asked to see them.
The Gestapo demanded the surrender of the items: two postcards and the painting by Adolf Hitler. The Gestapo confiscated the postcards. The Blochs no longer had the painting at that time.
The Blochs remained unbothered in their house in Linz for nearly three years. Then Eduard asked Hitler for permission to move to his daughter in New York City. She had emigrated to the United States with her husband, Dr. Franz Krenn, before the start of the Second World War.
Adolf Hitler ordered that the emigration formalities be eased for him. In the meantime, the Gestapo ensured that no one harassed them.
Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, personally oversaw everything.
When the formalities for emigration were completed, Eduard Bloch and his wife Lilli were able to sell their house at market value without intervention from the SS. This was highly unusual given the forced sales of Jewish property at the time.
In addition, the Blochs were allowed to take the equivalent of 16 Reichsmarks with them. The usual amount granted to Jews was only ten Reichsmarks.
In October 1940, Eduard Bloch and his wife were able to travel to Lisbon. Portugal was officially neutral during the Second World War. From there, they boarded a Spanish ocean liner to the United States and settled in the Bronx, New York.
Bloch could no longer practice as a doctor because his medical degree from Austria-Hungary was not recognized.
During his time in the United States, Bloch spoke about Hitler. He described him as a quiet, well-mannered, and neatly dressed youth who waited patiently in the waiting room and bowed respectfully.
Bloch said Hitler was not a mama’s boy in the usual sense, but he had never seen a closer bond between mother and son. Their love was mutual. Klara Hitler adored her son and allowed him to go his own way whenever possible.
Bloch also said that Adolf Hitler was the saddest person he had ever seen when he learned of his mother’s impending death.
In his autobiography, Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote: “I honored my father, but I loved my mother. Her death was a terrible blow.”
Eduard Bloch was 73 years old when he died on June 1, 1945, nearly a month after Hitler’s death.