NEVER TOLERATE TYRANNY!....Conservative voices from the GRASSROOTS.

The signs of Dictatorship... HITS HOME...Austria 1938

1938 AUSTRIA

After America , There is No Place to Go"

The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be 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?

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"