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December 22, 2012 - “What I am about
to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history
books,” she likes to tell audiences.
“I am a witness to history.
“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.
If you remember the plot of the Sound
of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit
to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her
native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was
watching.
“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.
She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.
“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”
No so.
Hitler is welcomed to Austria
“In 1938, Austria was in deep
Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25
percent inflation and 25 percent 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.’
“We looked to our neighbor on the
north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls.
“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 in Germany 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,” remembers Kitty,
“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 re- quired to give up for marriage.
“Then we lost religious education for kids
“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.”
And then things got worse.
“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,”
remembers Kitty. “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.
“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,” remembers Kitty.
“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.
“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.
“You could take your children ages
four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock,
seven 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.
“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 percent 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, too
“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, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to
produce it.
“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.
“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.”
“This is my eyewitness account.
“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.
“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.
“After America, there is no place to go.”
Kitty Werthmann
December 22, 2012 - “What I am about
to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history
books,” she likes to tell audiences.
“I am a witness to history.
“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.
If you remember the plot of the Sound
of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit
to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her
native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was
watching.
“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.
She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.
“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”
No so.
Hitler is welcomed to Austria
“In 1938, Austria was in deep
Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25
percent inflation and 25 percent 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.’
“We looked to our neighbor on the
north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls.
“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 in Germany 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,” remembers Kitty,
“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 re- quired to give up for marriage.
“Then we lost religious education for kids
“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.”
And then things got worse.
“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,”
remembers Kitty. “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.
“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,” remembers Kitty.
“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.
“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.
“You could take your children ages
four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock,
seven 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.
“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 percent 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, too
“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, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to
produce it.
“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.
“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.”
“This is my eyewitness account.
“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.
“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.
“After America, there is no place to go.”
Kitty Werthmann
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