Dr B’s Displacement

Dr B’s secure professional life is shattered by political persecution, imprisonment, and forced departure.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Trusted Practice

A Quiet Professional Life Inherited responsibilities Dr B works with his father, then alone, managing assets for monasteries and members of the Austrian imperial house. The practice depends on discretion rather than public visibility. A fragile security Political upheaval makes the work dangerous. Dr B’s professional connections, once a source of trust and responsibility, become the reason the authorities consider him useful to interrogate.

Arrest in Vienna

A Sudden Arrest The regime closes in As Adolf Hitler’s forces prepare to enter Austria, the Gestapo arrests Dr B. He has burned some papers and sent other essential records away, but cannot know what the authorities have already learned. A special prisoner Rather than sending him to a camp, the authorities hold him at Hotel Metropole. They hope to extract information and money from a man whose quiet legal work connected him to prominent clients.

Release and Exile

An Uncertain Freedom A doctor’s intervention After Dr B’s mental collapse and injury, a sympathetic doctor conceals the full story from the authorities. Dr B is eventually released, though the exact reason for his release remains unclear. Departure under pressure He must promise to leave his homeland within fourteen days. Bureaucratic formalities occupy the remaining time, and the abrupt move into exile leaves him only gradually able to confront what imprisonment did to him.

Before the Anschluss of Austria

The evening Schuschnigg announces his resignation

After his hospitalization, before leaving Austria