In God's hands : An autobiography /

The memoirs were written in 1975 in the United States. Description of the author’s family background. His father Jacob Bock was a schoolteacher, who later in life became principal of a School of Business in Wiener Neustadt. His parents converted to Catholicism shortly after they got married. Childhood memories and recollections of summer vacations in Attersee, near Salzburg. Recollection of his extended family. Scarce contact with his paternal grandmother, who did not approve of her son’s conversion. Rudolf grew up in a family, where religion was hardly mentioned. His father was an outspoken Socialist. First awareness of his Jewish background at age 16. Rising antisemitism in Austria, which also influenced the atmosphere at his school. Student exchange to France in 1931. After graduation he started medical school at the Vienna University in 1933. Description of cultural life in Vienna. The author describes the atmosphere among his family and friends, who, like him, underestimated the dangers of Nazism. Anschluss to Nazi Germany in March of 1938. Life under National socialism and help from Aryan friends to continue his studies. Recollections of the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht) in 1938. Rudolf was not permitted to take his final medical exams and started preparations for his emigration. In 1939 he joined his brother Kurt in Zagreb, where they found support in the local Jewish community. Plan to emigrate to Japan, where their uncle worked as an engineer. Journey to China and Japan. Admission to Peking Union Medical College (PUMUC) founded by the Rockerfeller Foundation, where Rudolf was able to finish his medical training. Description of life in Peking. He graduated in 1941 and specialized in ophthalmology. In the meantime his mother and grandparents arrived in Japan and lived with his brother Kurt. His sister went to England with a children’s transport. His father, who was unfit for travel at that time, died in Vienna in 1941.Pearl Harbor and closing of the hospital. Rudolf was interrogated because he was believed to be a spy due to his correspondence with his family in Japan. In 1942 his mother joined him in Peking. Primitive living conditions. Growing friendship with his future wife Trude. They got married in September of 1944. Work in the Methodist Eye Hospital. Recollections of the end of the war. In September 1946 their daughter Marianne was born. Preparations to leave China. They left Peking for Shanghai in December of 1946. Arrival in Marseille on March 4th, 1947. Move to Geneva, Switzerland, where Trude’s parents were living. Delays in their immigration to the United States. Plans to settle in Europe. Trip to Austria, where he met with former friends and witnessed the post-war destruction. Position at the Eye clinic in Geneva and completion of his medical degree at the University of Vienna. They were almost ready to settle in Austria when finally his immigration papers for the U.S came through in the fall of 1950. They left for the United States soon after and arrived in New York in March of 1951. Trude and their daughters went to Berkeley to stay with Rudolf’s brother Kurt, while the author prepared for the Medical State Board exam in New York. He got a research position at Stanford. In July of 1951 their son Michael was born. The family settled in Paolo Alto, where Rudolf Bock started his own practice.Rudolf H. Bock was born on April 20, 1915 in Vienna, Austria as one of three children to Hilde and Jakob Bock. His parents converted to Christianity when they moved to Wiener Neustadt, a nearby city in Lower Austria, where his father became the post as principal of the School of Business. As an 'assimilated Jew' he grew up in a mixture of Jewish family traditions and Catholic school education. After the 'Anschluss' in 1938 the racial rules of the Nazis did not differentiate. Of Jewish origin, he could not finish his studies at the Medical School of the University of Vienna and had to emigrate. His adventurous route of escape brought him finally to Peking, China, where he could finish his degree as ophthalurologist at the Rockefeller-sponsored Peiping Union Medical College. There he became acquainted with the Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin and other personalities of the foreign community. After the war he returned to Vienna to finish Medical School before he immigrated to the United States, where he was reunited with most of his family. He became active within the Unitarian Church in California, rediscovering his Jewish roots at the same time.Austrian Heritage CollectionSee also Rudolf Bock Collection AR 11335Emigration and immigration--Official documentsChildren--Conversion to ChristianityBerkeleyGenevaPekingShanghaiNew YorkFranceSwitzerlandChildhoodEducation, primary and secondary, 1918-1933Emigration and immigration, 1933-1945, YugoslaviaHospitalsMedicineRighteous Gentiles in the Holocaus