Posted on 01/28/2013 7:46:22 PM PST by foundedonpurpose
They Voted for Hitler in Austria (and He Put In Gun Controls) by Kitty Werthmann
What I am about to tell you is something youve 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. Ive 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 didnt want to work; there simply werent 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 didnt 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 couldnt 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 Hitlers picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldnt 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 couldnt 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 wasnt 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 didnt work, you didnt get a ration card, and if you didnt have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didnt 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 couldnt 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 didnt 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 couldnt 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 couldnt, 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.
Its 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. Dont Let Freedom Slip Away.
After America, There is No Place to Run.
The above originally appeared at Examiner.com
Ping! Look at what Hitler did to Austrian schools, and how quickly!
Ping! I thought you might like this, as it shows how Hitler transformed Austria in 5 years.
Good reminder.
This is nothing new to those that don’t just stick to the TV, American Idol, and such.
We better keep this in mind, really well.
Thank you for this.
I agree. Get it to as many people as possible. Some will stay blind but most will start to open their eyes.
Mark
I have a couple of videos of Werthman on my profile listed about the Nazis.
Kinda makes one wonder what’s in store for America through the next four years; Americans voted into office our own.... guy, too.
bttt
“I have a couple of videos of Werthman on my profile listed about the Nazis.”
Like these-
America’s Last Best Hope: Holocaust Survivor Discusses the Politics of ......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuv4qbNnQD8
Let Freedom Ring June 28 2011 Kitty Werthmann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAvMHWhdEUU
The socio-economics of Europe then, and the socio-economics of America today.
For centuries, europeans had been serfs that were tied to the land, virtual slaves. They had generations of reflexive bowing and scraping to their 'betters' and 'lords'.
We ain't had that crap here, no how.
We have generations of reflexive standing up and spitting in the eye of tyrants. Even if we get our butts whipped.
Your mileage may vary. Stay off my lawn.
/johnny
Take away the initial economic uptick and it would be pretty close to the current socialists running everything.
Killer cannon fodder for the beast.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2982604/posts?page=1
In 1938 Austria, Kitty Werthmann was a young girl.
While reading her story it is easy to see the similarities between Hitler and President Obama. Kitty says that Austria was in a deep depression with one-third of their workforce unemployed.
In Obamas regime we have high unemployment.
Kitty says that farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily.
In Obamas regime we have a high bankruptcy rate.
Kitty says that 98% of Austrians voted to annex Austria to Germany under Hitlers rule.
A large percentage of Americans voted for Obama in 08.
Kitty says the Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other.
Our Republican party has only one-third of the voters.
Germans were led to believe that there would be no persecution of any group.
We heard the same thing.
In Obamas regime we have a war on women, race baiting, a war on the rich, a war on families, a war on religion.
Kitty says they danced for three days after being annexed to Hitlers Germany.
Many Americans danced when Barack Obama was elected.
After the election, Germany created jobs through Public Work Service.
Obamas regime is creating jobs in the Public Work Service and the Green Movement.
Hitler took away the stigma of men not being able to support their families.
Obamas regime is taking men out of the families.
Hitlers regime nationalized education.
Obamas regime nationalized school curricula.
Hitlers regime took religion out of our schools.
Obamas regime is taking religion out of our schools.
Hitlers regime made Sunday a National Youth Day with compulsory attendance.
Obamas regime hasnt thought of that yet.
unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.
Obamas regime promotes unwed mothers.
When the war started, all food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps.
In Obamas regime half of Americans are on some sort of public assistance.
Hitlers regime established around-the-clock, 7 days a week, government child care.
In Obamas regime we can drop our kids off at 7:30am and pick them up at 6:00pm.
Before Hitlers regime, they had very good medical care. Then it was socialized.
Before Obamas regime, we had very good medical care. Then it was socialized.
Hitlers healthcare tax rate went up to 80% of their income.
In Obamacare, we are still waiting to see how high our taxes will go.
In Hitlers regime, everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.
In Obamas regime, half of Americans are entitled to food stamps, clothing, and housing.
Hitlers regime had an agency designed to monitor business.
Obamas regime gave us regulations too, too many to mention.
Hitlers regime had consumer Protection.
Obamas regime has the FDA, EPA, ATF, and many more
Hitlers regime enacted gun registration.
We already have that.
Hitlers regime confiscated their guns.
Obamas regime is looking to do the same.
Hitlers regime took away freedom of speech.
Obamas regime is well under way to take away our freedom of speech.
It took 5 years for Hitler to implement his totalitarianism.
We are entering Obamas 5th year.
Austria was occupied by Russia.
We are occupied.
Kitty Werhmann ends it by saying
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Dont Let Freedom Slip Away!
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This article is good from both a historical and political perspective and as another reason to homeschool.
We are heading that way. Not as quickly, but we're getting there.
Bfl
Yeah, we are the government and we are here to help...
Obama has America in a stranglehold whereby we are in a permanent crisis of some sort or other. And of course Fuehrer Obama has the solution if the opposition would just get out of the way.
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