A History Lesson

[Judy Harder]

I have not looked this up to prove or disprove. I am sure this will start a debate and that is why I put this here.
If it is true, God HELP US!
Judy

Interesting history article...

This takes a little time to read but is worth the time!



1938 AUSTRIA

BEWARE-We already have some similarities!  This is a fascinating account

of politcal Austria from 1938 to 1943.  You may see some similarities. 



1938 Austria --Land of "The Sound of Music" Story.
Fri, 11/20/09, Marjorie Lynn Ferrell  wrote:

Friends, I had the opportunity to hear Kitty Werthmann speak at the Eagle
Forum national conference a couple of months back.  She told a powerful
story about what it was like growing up under Hitler.

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"

[Anmar]

this is a fake letter imo, every austrian knows that there was no election for hitler, the vote was on a referendum to join Germany.  The vote was cancelled, but enforced later on 4/12/1938 by the nazis.  The total wasnt 98%, it was 99%, but it doesn't matter, because both numbers are a farce.  Saddam hussein held elections in Iraq every year, just like Hosni Mubarak and Qaddafi, etc.  For some reason, no matter what happens, those guys always win with 99% of the vote.  Maybe someone here can explain why a country like austria, who was on the verge of civil war between communists and national socialists, would suddenly make peace and together vote for hitler.

They wouldn't, the letter is fake, another lie by some crazy right wing group trying to stir up crap.

[Wilma]

AMEN!!