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.