The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. I encourage everybody to read this article and pass it along. I see so many parallels in this country–are we going to sit by and watch it happen? Spread the word; also contact your congressional reps; vote them out if they don’t do what they should. If you don’t want to be bothered, then you’re part of the problem! Google Kitty Werthmann and you will see articles and videos.
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"
Please forward this message to other voters who may not have it.
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Craig
Who refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25
The sad part is that some want that here and others will just blindly say that it can't happen here. The Founders knew that this kind of thing can happen to any nation if the people allow it, even here. They also gave us several ways, in steps, to stop it. But when you tell people that they shut you down as an "extremist". If you quote the Founders you are an "extremist". Wrap your mind around that idea, and then tell me that we haven't fallen. The similarities are abundant and glaring if you don't put blinders on.
Thanks for posting this.
I am GLAD, to see this posted here.
I thought about posting it.
Many folks, have there heads buried in the sand/snow.
And say that this can NEVER happen, in this country.
Yet, history has continuously proven, this theory wrong.
Since the dawn of mankind!
REMEMBER folks.
The ONLY SINGLE thing, that keeps this great country together.
And yet, separate/different from the rest of the world.
Is the Constitution Of The United States Of The United States!
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"If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." Ronald Reagan
A Man WITH a gun is a CITIZEN, a Man WITHOUT a gun is a SUBJECT
I give the American people more credit than the Europeans of the '30's. Then again, it's said that even a drowning man will grasp for the point of a sword. We have to keep the American people from becoming that drowning man. If we let the rich continue to destroy the middle class so there is only the extremely poor and extremely wealthy, this could become reality.
I give the American people more credit than the Europeans of the '30's. Then again, it's said that even a drowning man will grasp for the point of a sword. We have to keep the American people from becoming that drowning man. If we let the rich continue to destroy the middle class so there is only the extremely poor and extremely wealthy, this could become reality.
I used to, but not now. The public school system and the college's and the mass media are being used to teach revisionist history, racism, hatred, political correctness, scientific absolutism and incite class warfare. Basically, from day one Marx is being burned into their brains.
One voice alone will be drowned out. Get active in your local 9/12 group or similar gatherings of like minded people who want things to change. The incumbents will have lots of party money to spend and spend well. They will inundate the TV, radio, internet, and papers with ads. Unless there is a common voice out there to combat what they say, the inattentive hordes will put them back in office.
I saw my current congressman get elected to represent this district last time around. He is a Democrat, took a seat that had been held by a Republican for many years. He outspent his rivals by over 30 times. He lost in all precincts except the big city ones that constitute his back yard. He shows up here for PR stuff that we only hear about after the fact. He avoids anything like a town hall meeting. And I think he will get re-elected because the party is making sure he does things that look good, never mind the merit of how he goes about his duties - which is voting the party line when it counts but otherwise trying to appease folks like me by voting the way we would like. The health care vote is one example. He voted against the original package, but his one vote didn't matter in getting it through the house. It was better for his job retention if it looked like he voted the way the district felt, so he did. But you can bet that he would have gone the other way if his vote would have made the difference between pass and fail.
ARRRGGGHHH!
__________________ Teach
Taxpayers voting for Obama are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
Thanks neophyte for posting this. People need to know that this slow gradualism is just like the frogs in the pot. Most people didn't see it until it is too late. America can't go down this path, for we are still armed and somewhat free and the whole world is desperately waiting for us to reject this change. Well we see what change did to Austria. Let's don't let this happen. Calling all frogs,Vote this gradualism out. Make this viral. Send this everybody on your mailing lists. God still is on the throne, and his adversary is judged and is on death row.
Last edited by Deersniper; 02-28-2010 at 10:40 PM.
Reason: posting link
Here is one main difference between Germany and Austria in the 1930's and America in the 2010's is industrialized warfare. In the 30's industrialized warfare was possible. In modern times it is nearly impossible. Not only is it taboo to even think that industrialization through rapid armament of the society is desirable, but it is nearly impossible. Why? The answer is simple, the factories and raw materials necessary to create the arms does not exist in America.
I will acknowledge that in the 1930's liberal peace loving society that dominated Europe war was also taboo, but it had not suffered the horrors of true industrialized warfare. WWI was a localized war. No major city was destroyed, no village was whipped off the planet, save a couple around Vedun. The populous did not experience warfare in their backyard. WWII was on every Europeans porch, and for some in their living room in a real way, not via television.
Another reason why industrialized warfare is not possible in modern times is the technology leap that has been made in the past eighty years. No longer can armies mass for a coordinated attack on a scale necessary for industrial warfare. Could anyone imagine a nation pulling off a Normandy invasion in todays world with satellite imaging? For one, I cannot.
So, with the inability of industrialized warfare bringing a country out of the doldrums of depression, what chance is there for another Anschluss? It is impossible.
That is not to say, however, that America will never be replaced as the dominate world power, for I believe it will happen. However, it will be done through another means than war or annexation. Perhaps through the financial system. I believe that the way America will be replaced is though Americans turning their back on the world. We have no overseas empire to invade, no contiguous boarder with a hostile nation, no hollow army to be overrun. America's dominance is our ideology. Once we Americans turn our back on our ideology of individual rights, freedoms, and liberties we will lose our place in this world.
And who is next in line to take over as the world leader? I know I will be preaching the bandwagon, but I believe it is China. Throughout human history the dominate people has progressed steadily West, from Metsopotamia, to Persians, to Greeks to Romans to France to England to America. So, who is West of America, the Chinese.
They do, however, have problems. Their financial institutions are a mess, I have heard from several reliable sources that they are in fact building things and parking them in caves because there are no buyers. Also, as a libertarian, I completely distrust a collectivist society with a socialist government.
Sorry for the long rant. I have just been thinking about this kind of intellectual stuff for a while now.
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I hate four things: Liars, Idiots, Sidney Crosby, and the French
After America? Sure, there is a place to go - Washington D.C. with pitch forks, torches, rifles...drag those enemies of the state from their desks and lock them up.
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Don't let their ignorance and hate intimidate.
There are a lot of folks just like us, out there across the country, reading all of this, and they are starting to voices their opinions, and they are getting louder. The people of this nation, who care about this nation, are upset at the path it's taking, and they will stand with us, in order to bring it back to the right path. I have faith in my fellow Americans, those who want the country to rebound to it's former greatness. We don't need a nanny state, with big brother telling us how to live,and what we can or cannot do, or how to raise our children. I believe the noise will get louder, and the idiots who can't hear it in DC will suddenly find themselves without a career in politics. It is way past time for a good housecleaning, in the capital, to get the stink out!!!
"After America; There is NO Place to Go" 
Teach
