Early in 1938 Austria was merged with Germany as part of Hitler's strategy for again redrawing the map of central Europe. Government policy for Burgenland now became actively anti-Semitic. Sándor Wolf, who was Jewish, found himself arrested by the Gestapo and forced "voluntarily" to surrender his assets and his collection. Together with his sister, Frieda Löwy, he was forced to abandon his homeland, fleeing by way of Fiume and Triest to Palestine, where they acquired an estate in Haifa. After the war they prepared to return home to Austria, but their preparations were interrupted at the last minute when Wolf died following a short and unexpected illness.