Lesson from Austria

The following testimony shows an incredible parallel to the current Canadian situation.

"It was quite boring to participate in an election with one candidate from one party, so the turnout was very low. That is, until the local officials hit upon the idea of offering free drinks in return
for a vote. This inspired the electorate to become very interested in
politics."

It is easy to see how they can dupe/buy us.

One can see how our ancestors got duped but it is not clear if we are still any better, at least they did not have history to follow like we do and may be chocked down to a learning experience

But can we really learn form these historic events starring us in the face? The politicians certainly have..

Lesson from Austria, the personal testimony of


Kitty Werthman

who saw Hitler's rise to power in pre-war Austria. He did not conquer by force. He was eagerly welcomed by the people because the Nazis promised free health care, retirement income, unemployment
benefits, guaranteed wages, free nursery care, equal rights for women,
gun control, and other enticements that now are part of the American
political scene. Can we learn from Austria's mistake before it is too
late? 90 min.

This is another gem for Ed Griffin's audio archives described in my earlier post:

Corruption of History for Propaganda

Again as always those living in the London Ont. Canada area are welcome to borrow from my collection.

See also: 2004 – Year of the Slave

Chris Gupta

October 5, 1996

The Following Letter Was Originally Posted in the Worldtlk echo by Steve Davis
(This Synopsis of the above tape is good but is not a substitute to listen the tape)

What I'm about to tell you is something you've probably never read, or
will ever read in history books. I believe that I'm an eyewitness to
history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns;
it would distort history. We elected Hitler by 98% of the vote. I've never read that in any American publication. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria over.

In 1938, Austria was in deep depression. We had nearly one third of our work force unemployed, 25% inflation, and a 25% interest rate from banks. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy every day.
Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that
they didn't want to work, but there simply wasn't any work. My mother
was a very devout woman who believed that you have to help the people
in need. I remember she had a big kettle of soup every day, on the
stove, and we baked bread to feed those poor hungry people, about
thirty each day.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Lenzt, and Grotz were being destroyed. The people became desperate, and petitioned the
government to let the people 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. But they did have a high living standard. There
was nothing being said of persecution of anyone, Jewish or otherwise,
just that every one was happy. We wanted the same thing for Austria. We
were promised that if we would vote for Hitler, everyone would be
employed in two or three weeks, and he would help the family. He also
said that businesses would be helped. And the farmers would get their
farms back.

98% of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany, and have Hitler be our ruler. We were so joyful that for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. They opened up big field
kitchens and everyone was fed. After the election, everyone was
appointed from Germany. Like a miracle, suddenly we had law and order.
Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made
sure that a lot of work was being created by the Public Work Service.

Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married women did not work outside of the home. The husband would be looked down (upon) because he couldn't support a
family. The teaching profession was overjoyed that women could go back
to the jobs they gave up for marriage. Our education was nationalized.
I attended a very good school; 98% of the population was Catholic at
that time, so we had religion in our schools. the day we elected
Hitler, March 13, 1938, I walked into my schoolroom and where we had a
crucifix it was replaced with Hitler's picture and the flag. Our
teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class that we
wouldn't pray or have religion anymore. We sang Deutshland, Deutshland
Uber Alis and had physical education instead. Our parents were not
happy about the sudden change.

On Sunday, we had National Youth Day. It was compulsory to attend. We were told if our parents would not send us on Sunday, they would get a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be
fined the equivalent of three hundred dollars, and the third time they
would be subject to jail. As time went along, we loved it. The first
two hours we had political indoctrination. The rest of the day, we had
sports. We all had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We
would go home and tell our parents, gleefully, what a wonderful time we
were having.

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 might be
grateful. I almost hated my mother. It was a very good curriculum;
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 lifestyle was very
alarming to me.

By that time, it was glorified to be an unwed mother; to have a baby for Hitler. They lived a very loose lifestyle, without religion. It seemed strange to me that all of this 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 philosophy.

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. That meant all food was rationed and you couldn't buy anything without food-stamps. At the same time, the 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 one, you starved to death. The women who stayed home
and raised their family for years and didn't have any skills often had
to take a job that was for men. Soon after this, the draft was
implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male or female, to
give one year in the Labor Core. During the day, the girls had to work
on the farms and then at night, they returned to their barracks and had
their military training just like the men. They were trained to be
anti-aircraft gunners and in the Signal Core. After the Labor Core,
they were not discharged, but were used in the front lines. When I go
back to Austria and visit my friends, most of those women are emotional
cripples, because they just were not geared to the same thing that men
did in 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 Core, and into the military service.

Socially, Hitler had to restructure the family. When the mothers had to go out into the work-force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could bring your child from age four weeks on
up to school age, and leave them there 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, under the total absolute care of the state. There were no
motherly women there to take care of the children, just people highly
trained in child psychology. They raised a whole generation by state.

By that time, no one talked about equal rights, we knew we had been had. Before Hitler, we had very good medicine. Many doctors from America came over to train at the University of Vienna. After Hitler, all the health care
was socialized; free for everyone. The doctors were all 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 eight O'clock in the morning, forty 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 until your turn came.
There was no money for research because they poured it all into free
medicare for everybody. Work at the medical schools was literally
stopped, so the doctors left and went to other countries.

As for welfare, our tax rates went up to 80%. Any young couple who got married immediately received a one thousand dollar loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for
families. All day-care and education was free. Going to college
was subsidized, and high school was taken over by the government.
Everyone who was entitled to something, whether it was food-stamps,
clothing, or subsidized housing, was given it by the government.

We had another agency designed to control the businesses. I had a brother-in-law who's restaurant had square tables and chairs. The government told him he had to have round tables because people can bump
themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have more bathroom
facilities. It was just a small business; a dairy business with a snack
bar. His business couldn't survive with all the demands. Soon, he went
out of business. If the government owned the large businesses, and
not many small businesses existed, they could be in control. We had
consumer protection. We were told how we should shop, and what we
should buy. Free enterprise was literally abolished. We had a
planning agency, especially designed for farmers and private property
owners. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, then
tell the farmer what to produce and how to produce it.

In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villages were surrounded by mountain passes which in the winter were closed off, with snow causing people to be isolated. So people
inter-married. By genetic, the offspring were often retarded. When I
got there I was told there were fifteen adult mentally retarded people,
but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one named
Vincent really well. He was the janitor of the school. One day I looked
out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked
my superior what they were doing. She said it was the state health
department, taking him to an institution to teach him a trade, and to
read and write. The families had to sign a paper. The paper had a
little clause that they could not visit for six months, because it
would interfere with their program and they might get homesick. When
the six months passed, letters started to dribble back saying these
people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not ignorant.
We suspected what was happening. Those people all left in excellent
physcial health, and all died within six months. We called this
euthanasia.

Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler also said that the real way to catch the criminals (and we still had a few) was by the serial numbers of the guns, so we had to register
our guns. Most of the people were law abiding and dutifully marched to
the police station and registered their guns. Not long afterward, they
said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. They already
knew who had the guns, so you had to turn them in, or they would come
and get them.

We knew then that we had a full dictatorship. No more freedom of speech. If you said anything against the government, you were taken away. We knew many people who were taken away, not only Jews, but
priests and ministers. It didn't come overnight, it took five years
from 1938 until 1943 to graduate into dictatorship. If we (would have)
had a dictatorship overnight, we would have fought to our last breath,
but we had creeping gradualism.

Now we had nothing except broom-handles. The whole thing was almost unbelievable; that you can feed all this to the masses, little by little and no one would object. It's true, those of us who sailed past
the Statue of Liberty, came to a country of unbelievable freedom and
opportunity. America is the greatest country in the world. Don't let
freedom slip away. After America, there is no place to go.

********************* end of letter *******************
Email: leslemke@mail.coos.or.us
Web Site: http://www.coos.or.us/~leslemke/index.html (inactive as of mid Oct 97)

One can read the real story of Hitler in the following book
The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben by Joseph Borkin available free from my favourite Soil and Health Library CG.