America truly is the Greatest
Country in the World.
By: Kitty Werthmann
What I am about to tell you
is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history
books. I believe that I am an eyewitness
to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took 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 that 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 childcare
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, 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 eyewitness
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
"After America , There is No Place
to Go"
Kitty Werthmann is 85 years old, lives in South
Dakota, and is very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. I encourage
everybody to read this article and pass it along. I see so many parallels in
this country, are we going to sit by and watch it happen? Spread the word; also contact your congressional
reps; vote them out if they don't do what they should. If you don't want to be
bothered, then you're part of the problem!
