 In 1937, the company shares were transferred to a company named the Alliance Assurance Co., Ltd a forerunner of the RSA Insurance Group, and in which the London House of Rothschild still had a controlling interest.During the Anschluss, Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild was arrested by the Gestapo during an attempted escape and was kept as a hostage for two years, until the London based holding agreed to sell its Vitkovice shares to the German government for the discounted price of 2.9 million pounds.In May 1939 Baron Rothschild was released and the Vitkovice Works eventually became part of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring.