Eduard Bloch - Emigration

Emigration

After the Third Reich's annexing of Austria in 1938 (Anschluss) life became hard for Austrian Jews. Bloch's medical practice was closed on October 1, 1938. His daughter and son-in-law, Bloch's young colleague Dr. Franz Kren (born 1893 in Austria, died 1976 in the USA), fled overseas.

The sixty-six-year-old Bloch wrote a letter to Hitler asking for help and was as a consequence put under special protection by the Gestapo. He was the only Jew in Linz with this status. Bloch stayed in his house with his wife undisturbed until the formalities for his emigration to the United States were completed. Without any interference from the authorities, they sold their house for a large sum. However, they were allowed to take only the equivalent of 16 Reichsmark out of Austria; the usual amount allowed to Jews was 10 Reichsmark.

In 1940 Bloch emigrated and lived in the Bronx, 2755 Creston Avenue, New York City but no longer practiced medicine because his medical degree was not recognised. He died of stomach cancer at the age of seventy three in 1945, barely a month after Hitler's death. He is buried in Beth David Cemetery, Section D, Block 3, Elmont, New York.