In March 1938 German troops entered Austria, which was followed by rapid integration, giving rise to a "Greater Germany" that incorporated the two hitherto separate states. A few days after the armies arrived from the west Franz Rauscher was arrested by the Gestapo, but he was released a week later. He found a job with the . In 1939 he was re-arrested by the Gestapo, however. This time he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp: he was held in state detention for the next six years. At some stage during the Second World War, which in this part of Europe lasted from 1939 till 1945, he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland. Shortly before the war ended he was either liberated by the Red army or else managed to escape from the concentration camp as the state infrastructure of Nazi Germany collapsed. He made his way back to Austria, arriving at Salzburg on 14 April 1945. The Soviet and western governments had already declared the 1938 combining of Germany with Austria null and void, and within two weeks of Rauscher's arrival at the border by Salzburg a hastily assembled in Vienna, under Chancellor Renner, had anticipated the requirements of the country's new masters with a signed by the leaders of the three main political parties (which included the Social Democrats) on 27 April 1945.