Austria - 1938

Truly America 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"

Start DP camps information on Austria A-C

Archives of Europe: http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/euro1.html