Kitty Werthmann, an 84-year-old Austrian émigré to the United States, recently wrote an eyewitness account about the way Austria succumbed to Hitler in the 1930s.
She mentioned that Hitler did not just roll into the country with tanks. There was high unemployment and many bankruptcies in Austria. Political parties fought each other in a civil war. As a result, Austrians naturally looked to their neighbor to the north and found that there was no crime, full employment, and a high standard of living. Hitler had made promises and kept them.
When Hitler’s time came in Austria, the population voted him into office with 98% of the vote. The country was then annexed to Germany and Hitler was made its ruler.
Austria now experienced: law and order; full employment; nationalization of education without any religious education; political indoctrination among youth; restructuring the family through day care. However, the quality of health care suffered, as did small businesses. Hitler instituted consumer protection, in which consumers were told what to buy and how to shop. Industrial capitalism was frozen. More and more "agencies appeared, many of them to watch over business endeavors.
And finally — and most importantly — there was no more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.
From here.
She mentioned that Hitler did not just roll into the country with tanks. There was high unemployment and many bankruptcies in Austria. Political parties fought each other in a civil war. As a result, Austrians naturally looked to their neighbor to the north and found that there was no crime, full employment, and a high standard of living. Hitler had made promises and kept them.
When Hitler’s time came in Austria, the population voted him into office with 98% of the vote. The country was then annexed to Germany and Hitler was made its ruler.
Austria now experienced: law and order; full employment; nationalization of education without any religious education; political indoctrination among youth; restructuring the family through day care. However, the quality of health care suffered, as did small businesses. Hitler instituted consumer protection, in which consumers were told what to buy and how to shop. Industrial capitalism was frozen. More and more "agencies appeared, many of them to watch over business endeavors.
And finally — and most importantly — there was no more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.
From here.
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