December 31, 2021

A Daughter's Search for her Family's Truth in Pre-Holocaust Austria Discovers That her Great Uncle Treated Hitler's Mother and (young) Adolf Himself

Today’s guest, Meriel Schindler, is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Lost Café Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, And The Search for Truth. Café Schindler was built by her uncles Hugo and Erich in the early 1900’s, and was considered the place to be in Innsbruck Austria - Where they served the best pastries and featured the most talented musicians for dance nights.
The café, though under a new family ownership, is still operating
today. This book, however, is not about a café, but about family
history, Nazi plundering of Jewish businesses and property, attempts at reclamation, and a search for truth and closure years after the war. Our guest discovered her fathers’ papers in 2017 which served as a link to his family back in Austria going back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, including family members who served in the Austrian military during WW1. Meriel discovers that her great uncle Edward Bloch was an incredible medical doctor who took care of everyone - rich and poor, and any time of day or night. Meriel Schindler tells of her uncle Edward being given special “protection” during the Nazi onslaught of Austria, because during the early 1900’s Dr. Bloch treated Hitler’s mother for breast cancer, and treated young Adolf himself.

There
were a lot of lessons from this book, which showed that even Jews who were fully assimilated with their non-Jewish neighbors were not spared from the Nuremburg Laws or Nazi-inspired antisemitism. And as the author wrote, there were so few Jews in this part of Austria for Nazis to blame their problems on.

...more