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1938 Austria
Kitty Werthmann is 85
years old.
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 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 livestock, 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 afterwards, 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, pre-teen 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."
Please forward this
message to other voters who may not have seen it.
"After
America, There is No Place to Go"
The author of this
article lives in South Dakota.
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