By: Kitty Werthmann (An Austrian who witnessed what took place under Hitler)

           What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or read in history books.            

          I am an eyewitness to history.  I can tell you that Hitler did not take 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 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 Germany, our neighbor on the north 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, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.            

          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.            

          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.            

Alien life is possible: Vatican

The Pope's chief astronomer has conceded other intelligent beings could exist in outer space. The conclusion has been drawn by scientific experts called in by the Vatican to study the possibility of extraterrestrial life and its implications for the Church.

It has been four centuries since the Catholic Church locked up Galileo for challenging the belief that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. The Vatican's five-day conference attracted 30 astronomers, physicists and biologists, including non-Catholics.

It was led by Jesuit priest Father Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory. Father Funes says the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective.

One of the organizers was Chris Impey, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. He says the aim was to assess the most recent research in the burgeoning field of astrobiology - the study of life in the universe. "And also getting a sense of when you know the vital breakthrough is going to be made, which is the discovery of life elsewhere," he said. "Because even though we're looking hard we still only know one planet anywhere with life and that's this one."

Breakthrough coming soon

He says that major breakthrough may be just around the corner. "If you were going to take a set of bets of the 30 scientists gathered for that meeting, I think most of them would have said on about a time scale of 10 years maybe," he said.

That's a guess from the scientists involved and it could come from either of two directions - it could come from a planetary mission within the solar system that looks at one of the most hospitable places for life nearby which is probably Titan, Europa or Mars. "Or it could come from telescopic observations of planets that we're finding in increasing numbers around distant stars." But before one starts looking at the concept through Hollywood eyes, professor Impey has another observation. "I think there's a big distinction between the finding of microbial life, bacteria or something like that which is actually the most likely form of life to discover initially, and intelligent life - sentient beings with technology, and that's a different strategy," he said. "So I think on the former, on microbial life it's not likely to challenge the world's major religions - but if we find creatures that rival us or exceed us in intelligence, then I think that's going to be very interesting."

Church's positive response

But perhaps not too interesting, according to Dr Paul Collins, a former priest and now Church historian and Catholic commentator. He says a belief in extraterrestrial life does not necessarily contradict any basic tenets of the Catholic religion. "I would think that our response would be a positive one," he said. "I'm not infallible on this of course, but the reality is that I don't think it does contradict anything within Catholicism.Essentially what the Christian faith generally is saying and certainly Catholicism specifically is saying is that God is the ultimate source of life, the ultimate source of reality."

The views of the Catholic Church have shifted radically since the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating other worlds could be inhabited. The Vatican Observatory has been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science and today senior clergy openly endorse scientific ideas such as the big bang theory and evolution.

And Dr Collins sees no problem with where aliens might fit in with the belief that man was created in God's image. "Every creature reflects the goodness and the creativity of God. Humankind, we certainly would argue that we represent that most fully and most completely," he said. "But all of creation represents God's creativity. So any extraterrestrial being would certainly represent that creativity as well and may be or may not be more developed than we are."

By Barney Porter for The World Today