A story that was forwarded to me. To me it really brings home that we all need to be ever aware of our rights and history. I am not against change, I am not even against Obama as a person. I see a civilization of people whos viewpoints are easily changed and generations that are increasingly poorly educated.  We should support our government but the government is here to SERVICE us, the people. They are a SERVICE for OUR country. So we have a responsibility to see that we are being services in the way that the majority sees fit. 

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"