A WAKE UP CALL TO AMERICANS...
The author of the following article, Kitty
Werthmann, grew up in Austria and lived through the Hitler regime
both before and after WWII, and the suppression of human rights and
freedom by the Nazi Party. She moved to the USA and became a citizen
in 1962. She is 83 years old and lives in Pierre, South Dakota where
she has written and spoken extensively about the danger of loosing
our freedoms. The following article is one of many that she has
written. You can check out this info for yourself on the Internet by
going to Google and searching for Kitty Werthmann.
An interesting read. Please feel free to pass it
along.
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the
World..
Don't Let Freedom Slip Away!
By: Kitty Werthmann (An Austrian who witnessed
what took place under Hitler)
What I am about to tell you is something you've
probably never heard or read in history books.
I am an eyewitness to history. I can tell you
that Hitler did not take Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort
history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote. I've never
read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks Hitler just
rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.
In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly
one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and
25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were
declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to
house begging for food. Not that they didn't want to work; there
simply weren't any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and
believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle
of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30
daily.
The Communist Party and the National Socialist
Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like
Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate
and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of
government they wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany ,
where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that
they didn't have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard
of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group --
Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy.
We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a
vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the
family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and
farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the
population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our
ruler.
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced
in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government
opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were
appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three
or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure
that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for
women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did
not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked
down on if he couldn't support his family. Many women in the
teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they
previously had been required to give up for marriage.
Hitler Targets Education-Eliminates Religious
Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very
good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so
we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13,
1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by
Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very
devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or have
religion anymore. Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber
Alles," and had physical education.
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory
attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in
curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would
receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time
they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they
would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political
indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went
along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports
equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents
about the wonderful time we had.
My mother was very unhappy. When the next term
started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I
told her she couldn't do that and she told me that someday when I
grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but
hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated
it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on
holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask
what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle
was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time
unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed
strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went
along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't
exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.
Equal Rights Hits Home:
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was
established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using
food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed
which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if
you didn't have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home
to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often
had to take jobs more suited for men.
Soon after this, the draft was implemented.. It
was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year
to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms,
and at night they returned to their barracks for military training
just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners
and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they
were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back
to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are
emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the
horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely
injured in an air raid attack.. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I
was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military
service.
Hitler Restructured the Family Through
Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work
force, the government immediately established child care centers.
You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave
them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of
the government. The state raised a whole generation of children.
There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just
people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one
talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.
Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under
Government Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care.
Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna .. After
Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were
salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the
people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good
doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already
waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you
needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your
turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into
socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally
stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other
countries.
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80%
of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the
government to establish a household. We had big programs for
families. All day care and education were free. High schools were
taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized.
Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps,
clothing, and housing.
We had another agency designed to monitor
business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square
tables.. Government officials told him he had to replace them with
round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners.
Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was
just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn't meet all
the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned
the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in
control.
We had consumer protection. We were told how to
shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We
had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents
would go to the farms, count the live-stock, and then tell the
farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.
"Mercy Killing" Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small
village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain
passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing
people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were
sometimes retarded.. When I arrived, I was told there were 15
mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good
manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor
of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and
others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were
going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department
would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were
required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not
visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the
program and might cause homesickness.
As time passed, letters started to dribble back
saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers
were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left
in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called
this euthanasia.
The Final Steps - Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration. People were getting
injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals
(we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most
citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police
station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police
said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The
authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to
comply voluntarily.
No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said
something against the government was taken away. We knew many people
who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who
spoke up.
Totalitarianism didn't come quickly; it took 5
years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria.
Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the
last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only
weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost
unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
After World War II, Russian troops occupied
Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote
about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took
everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the
process.. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they
couldn't destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most
of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid
in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who
couldn't; paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today,
dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is
an eye witness account.
"It's true, those of us who sailed past the
Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and
opportunity. America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World.
Don't Let Freedom Slip Away.
