Zorro
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Number of posts : 112
Job/hobbies : Education/Animal Rescue
Registration date : 2009-03-15
 | Subject: Our Austrian and German Friends are distressed and trying to warn us  Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:24 pm | |
| "After America , There is No Place to Go"The author of this article lives in
South Dakota and is very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. I
encourage everybody to read this article. I see so many parallels in this
country? Spread the word;contact
your congressional reps; vote them out if they don’t do what they
should. Google Kitty Werthmann to see articles and videos.  America Truly is the Greatest Country in the WorldDon't Let Freedom Slip AwayBy:
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. | |
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