 An experienced lawyer, Schaus was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, in which he served until 1940, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Chamber was suspended.Having refused to swear allegiance to the occupying forces, Eugene Schaus, his wife and their three children spent most of the war in German deportation camps in Eastern Europe, and returned only at the end of the war.He was the Group for Patriotism and Democracy member of the National Union Government, as Minister for the Interior, and was elected at the next election, in 1945.