[StBernard] 1938 Austria - Scary piece of history!!

[Westley Annis]

Socialism is a philosophy of failure,
the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the
equal sharing of misery."
-- Winston Churchill 

	
	
	
	 
	 Hope  and Change :  circa 1938 
	
	
	 
	After you read this , Google  Kitty Werthunann......
	
	
	
	IT HAS STARTED HERE IN 2008. IT CAN STOP IN 2012,  IT IS ALL UP TO
YOU.  HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITS SELF. 
	 
	.
	1938 Austria
	
	Kitty Werthmann is 85 years old.
	
	This is a SCARY piece of HISTORY. Read & perhaps learn 
	something new from HISTORY and "CHANGE".
	
	
	
	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 and is 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? Spread the word; also contact your
congressional reps; vote them out if they don't do what they should. If you
don't want to be bothered, then you're part of the problem! Google Kitty
Werthmann and you will see articles and videos.