Austria 1938 by Kitty Werthmann

[Guest]

Austria 1938 by Kitty Werthmann

AIP is 'the Citizen-Led Campaign to Save America' -> America's Forum - 'We are the Media!'

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. Bythat

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.

http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=12514&posts=6

[Gordon1]

Thanks Richard,

An important post.

[Gordon1]

Thanks Richard,

An important post.

Such eyewitness accounts would be published by the Religious Liberty Dept. if they were awake to the signs of the times.

Nazi Germany was a foreshadow of the final persecuting power of the Roman Church, with all her daughters in tow. Even loyal Adventists were turned in by German conference officials for keeping holy the Sabbath day.

Many know the Catholic Church was complicit in the affairs of the Third Reich, including the 'Final Solution'. Indeed, the Gestapo and S.S. under Himmler were closely modeled on the Jesuit order. No surprise here as the Roman Church has always harboured a grudge against seventh-day Judaizers, ostensibly for "killing the Christ". But in fact this small sect keeps alive the sign which says 'Remember'.

[Guest]

Exactly Gordon! Thanks for saying it.

[Dr. Shane]

I find such rhetoric and ideas to be dangerous and not about my freedom!!!

Wolves in sheep clothing!!!

Indeed. Thanks for commenting on this.

[there buster]

Quote:

I find such rhetoric and ideas to be dangerous

Yeah. Gotta watch out for free speech! Dangerous.

[Guest]

Interesting yes....But if one looks at the Bio for the referenced AIP, the similarities between them and other ultraconservative groups are no different. They say freedom of religion, but they mean only religions they approve of, ie, government legislation to enforce their beliefs of marriage, abortion, etc. A group of wolves in sheeps clothing. Much like the Nazi party beginning and other Socialist governments, we are the correct way and God is on our side. They also talk about doing away with our tax system, with a nebulous comment about a more fair way, protection of OUR freedoms and way of life as established by God. Every group that wants to control things their way brings God into the mix to prove their ideas are the righteous and correct. They refer to the way of the founding fathers as being thier goal for returning America to its 'foundations'. Does that mean slavery, government ruled by only the educated and monied, as Jefferson believed? Such ideas sound on the surface very 'patriotic', but whose brand of patriotism are we talking about?They also talk about removal of judges that don't agree with thier concieved ideas of what is right, one could assume such would apply to anyone of descent. Nope, they be no different than anyother group in the past that has wanted their way or the highway.

I find such rhetoric and ideas to be dangerous and not about my freedom!!!

Wolves in sheep clothing!!!

Oooooh, I almost forgot. How you do love a "conspiracy theory". Glad I could oblige.

[Guest]

Quote:

I find such rhetoric and ideas to be dangerous

Yeah. Gotta watch out for free speech! Dangerous.

You must remember TB, they cannot afford real free speech, because they know that they cannot win in the arena of ideas. Therefore, when they pay lip service to free speech, (which is all it is) they are only referring to their own.

[karl]

Liberals preach "tolerance" and "diversity" but refuse to practice it themselves. They truly want to control people's thought processes. "I find such ideas dangerous." Political correctness is about trying to badger people into thinking like liberals. It is about putting pressure on people to not even whisper a thought which is counter to the liberal gobbledy-gook.

[Guest]

My point exactly.

[Bravus]

Pleased you guys have found such harmony among yourselves.

So, as I understand it, you're saying that the idea that some ideas are dangerous is dangerous?

(leave aside the fact that what CoAspen wrote is 100%, straight down the line, orthodox Adventist theology)

[karl]

So, as I understand it, you're saying that the idea that some ideas are dangerous is dangerous?

I am opposed to attempts being made to control other people's thinking. It's not the ideas that are dangerous, it's the attempt to confine them to the group-think. This is extremely deleterious. We need to differentiate a true threat from somebody's musings.

[Guest]

Pleased you guys have found such harmony among yourselves.

[Woody]

I prefer to go God's way ... it's always the best path.

[Bravus]

I know my Adventist theology and my Bible very well indeed, thanks for asking.

[Guest]

Then why not put it to use?

[Bravus]

I do, all the time, every day.

[Guest]

What!...you really read your Bible and know SDA theology????(tic)

It's interesting that when someone points the finger back to the rhetoric and its issues, you get no rebuttal just attacks about something that is not being attacked, ie, free speech, etc. It does make one wonder whether or not they really believe the stuff they post. It would seems the similarities I posted are being ignored. The rule of the day and for the past, has always been to distract, redirect but never address!! Samo-samo!!!

Tis a bit amusing though!!

I was joking with Bravus. We actually do that sometimes. Ask him, he'll tell you.

[Bravus]

So, maybe we can get off what I know and do - which is really not that interesting a topic - and back on to the topic of the thread.

Straight Adventist theology says there will be a Sunday Law. The civil power will enforce a religious edict on all citizens. The advocacy of just such kinds of enforcement is what CoAspen called a dangerous idea.