Eduard Bloch

Dr. Eduard Bloch (born 1872 in Frauenburg, Eastern Prussia; died 1945 in New York City, USA) was a doctor practicing in Linz (Austria). He was a Jew and until 1907 the doctor of the family of Adolf Hitler, who, out of gratitude, later gave Bloch special protection after the Nazi occupation of Austria.

Bloch studied medicine in Prague and then served in the Austrian army. In 1899 he was ordered to Linz and opened a private doctor's practice there in 1901. The first member of Hitler's family he was to see was Adolf's father Alois Hitler in 1903. Alois died shortly afterwards. In 1907 Hitler's mother, Klara Hitler was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died on December 21st after intense suffering that required daily medication usually given by Bloch. Because of the poor economic situation of the Hitler family at that time, Bloch had been working for reduced prices, sometimes taking no money at all. The then 18 year old Hitler granted him his "everlasting gratitude" for this ("Ich werde Ihnen ewig dankbar sein").

This showed in 1908 when Hitler wrote Bloch a postcard assuring him of his gratitude. Even in 1937 he inquired about his well-being and called him an "Edeljude" (noble Jew). After Hitler's Third Reich had "merged" with Austria in 1938 life became hard for the Austrian Jews. 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 until the formalities for his emigration to the United States were completed. In 1940 he emigrated and lived in the Bronx, New York City but no longer practiced medicine.

In 1941 and 1943 he was interviewed by the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) to get information about Hitler's childhood. He also published his memories about the encounter with the later "Führer" in the Collier's Weekly. In his memory Hitler was the "saddest man I had ever seen" when he was informed about his mother's imminent death. He remembered Hitler's mother as a very "pious and kind" woman. "Sie würde sich im Grabe herumdrehen, wenn sie wüsste, was aus ihm geworden ist." ("She would turn in her grave if she knew what became of him.")

Despite the obvious affection Hitler showed to Bloch, the historian Rudolph Binion believes that he was one of the contributing factors to Hitler's antisemitism that later resulted in the Holocaust.

Among the acquaintances of Bloch was also Hedda Wagner, an author and supporter of women's rights, who wrote a book dedicated to him.