Chapter Seven -Anschluss

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Chapter Seven

Anschluss

Vienna

March 1938

 

In this chapter, Dr. von Schuschnigg meets with Hitler at the Berghof and is forced to sign an agreement allowing members of the Nazi party to engage in government under threat of war. Austria is invaded by the Nazis, Bekka is forcibly removed from her family and lodged with 'loyal' Austrian Nazis, Jews are dragged from their homes and sent to camps 'for their protection', and Bekka meets Sepp, Himmler, and Wolf at the celebrations and later tries to throw herself out of a window to escape the situation. Sophie and Fritz and family are sent to Prague; Erwein and Franz are captured by the Nazis and sent to the SS. We learn the desperate truth of Sepp's loyalty to Wolf, meet his mistress Ursula; Himmler maps out his Gestapo in Austria; Claus von Stauffenberg is critical of the SS; and Dietrich Bonhoeffer loses his position as a university lecturer for speaking out against the Nazis. 

Contrary to what has been promoted, there was resistance to the Anschluss in Austria. Photo of the day before the invasion:

Anschluss. Bekka meets Sepp, Himmler, and the Fürher:

This photo is flipped backwards 

Anschluss:









 Anschluss. Jewish shops vandalised. Jews forced to clean the sidewalks with Gestapo oversight:


 Sepp and Ursula:

 

Chancellor Schuschnigg speaking to the Parliament against the Anschluss -promising that Austria will remain independent. 
The Complete History of the Anschluss - Very good long vid. Bashes the idea that Hitler was a mastermind.
German Troops March into Austria - British Pathe clip.
Germany Invades Austria - American newsreel
The Men who Built the Holocaust: The Austrian Architects of Evil -Excellent if terrifying documentary on the Nazis in Austria, pre- and post-Anschluss



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