-Kitty’s Story

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 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.
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”