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"
Kitty
Werthmann is a native Austrian who remembers well the Third Reich reign
of terror in Europe.