In 1938, the Third Reich, which had just annexed Austria, was applying a policy of systematic expulsion of foreign Jews resident on its territory. By 1 January 1939, there were no longer any Jewish businesses on Reich soil. The situation of German Jews grew worse: banished from German society, demonised by the regime, they were presented as the enemy within, but no longer had any possibility of leaving the country. The invasion of Poland by the Reich, on 1 September 1939, dragged Europe into the Second World War but war was just the start of the horror that was to come.