Editing Georg von Trapp (section)

==Departure from Austria==
According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}, Georg von Trapp found himself in a vexing situation after the [[Anschluss|German takeover of Austria]] in 1938. He was offered a commission in the [[Kriegsmarine|German Navy]]. This was a tempting proposition, particularly when Georg von Trapp saw the technological advances in 1930s U-boats unthinkable compared to those he had once commanded in World War I, but Trapp decided to decline the offer out of hostility to [[Nazi ideology]]. He also politely declined a request for the family choir to perform at [[Holidays in Nazi Germany|Hitler's birthday]] concert. After his eldest son also announced his intention to refuse to benefit from [[anti-Semitism]] and to similarly decline a medical position at a prestigious Vienna hospital that had just fired all [[Austrian Jew|Jewish]] doctors, Georg von Trapp realized that the writing was on the wall. He summoned all his children and warned them that no family could safely refuse three successive offers from a man like [[Adolf Hitler]]. After Georg advised them that they must choose between a life of comfort or become [[refugee]]s and keep their honour,<ref name=prologue/> the Trapp family decided to emigrate from [[Nazi Austria]].

On leaving Austria, the Trapps traveled by train to Italy (not over the mountains by foot to [[Switzerland]] as is depicted in ''The Sound of Music''). The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria. Once in Italy, they contacted the agent and requested fare to America,<ref name=prologue>{{cite magazine |last=Gearin |first=Joan |date=30 October 2005 |title=Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html |magazine=Prologue |url-status=dead |location=USA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629040126/http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html |volume=37 |issue=4 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |access-date=30 December 2017 }}.</ref> first traveling to London, before sailing to the United States for their first concert tour.<ref name=prologue/><ref name=life>{{cite news|title=Family Life in Vermont|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,794845-1,00.html|work=Time Magazine|date=18 July 1949|access-date=7 January 2011}}</ref>

In 1939 the family returned to Europe to tour [[Scandinavia]], hoping to continue their concerts in cities beyond the reach of the Third Reich. During this time, they went back to Salzburg for a few months before returning to [[Sweden]] to finish the tour. From there, they traveled to [[Norway]] to begin the trip back to the United States in September 1939, just after [[World War II]] broke out.<ref name=nara2/>

After living for a short time in [[Merion, Pennsylvania]], where their youngest child, Johannes, was born, the family settled in [[Stowe, Vermont]], in 1941. They purchased a {{convert|660|acre|adj=on}} farm in 1942 and converted it into the [[Trapp Family Lodge]].<ref name="nytimes1997_tribute"/> In January 1947, Major General [[Harry J. Collins]] turned to the Trapp family in the US pleading for help for the Austrian people, having seen first-hand the suffering of the residents of [[Salzburg]] when he had arrived there with the [[42nd Infantry Division (United States)|42nd Infantry Division]] after World War II. The Trapp Family founded the [[Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc.]]; the priest Franz Wasner, their pre-war friend, became its treasurer.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}