National Socialist Dictatorship 1938 - 1945

The Anschluss to Nazi Germany in March 1938 abolished Austria as a sovereign state. Events leading up to the Anschluss as well as the affect of the Nazi dictatorship in Linz have already been documented in numerous studies by the archive service of the city of Linz. Linz was not only the adoptive home town of the Führer and so a favoured target of Nazi city and economic planning, but also a centre for persecution and forced labour in the Ostmark. The effects of the resistance to the Nazi regime were limited. Liberation from Nazi rule did not occur until the arrival of Allied forces.