Birds of a feather.

1938 Austria --Land of "The Sound of Music" Story

Friends, I had the opportunity to hear Kitty Werthmann speak at the
Eagle Forum National Conference a couple of months back. She told a
powerful story about what it was like growing up under Hitler.
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom
Slip Away

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 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, 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
"After America , There is No Place to Go"
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