"She survived Hitler and wants to warn America"


GALTGULCH8

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Too late for this election.

Found this here:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/she-survived-hitler-and-wants-to-warn-america.html#ixzz2Fzr5YTU1

<<<"

She survived Hitler and wants to warn America
kitty-werthmann2.jpg

Kitty Werthmann

Kitty Werthmann survived Hitler.

“What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books,” she likes to tell audiences.

“I am a witness to history.

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

hitler_heil-150x150.jpg

Adolph Hitler

“We voted him in.”

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

No so.

hitler-austria.gif

Hitler is welcomed to Austria

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent 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.’

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

hitler-austrian-women-300x238.jpg

Austrian girls welcome Hitler

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany 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,” remembers Kitty, “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.

hitler-uildup-to-world-war-2-15.jpg

Austrians saluting

“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.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

hitleryouth01-222x300.jpg

Poster promoting "Hitler Youth"

“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.”

And then things got worse.

“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,” remembers Kitty. “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.

hitler-crowd.jpg

A pro-Hitler rally

“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.

“Then food rationing began

“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.

hitler-youth.jpg

Young Austrians

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “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.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.

“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven 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.

“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.

hitler-nazi-march-300x209.jpg“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 percent 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, too

hilter_youth_mind_contol.jpg

Austrian kids loyal to Hitler

“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.

“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.

“Then they took our guns

“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 afterwards, 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.

kitty-werthmann.jpg

Kitty Werthmann

“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.”

“This is my 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 is truly is the greatest country in the world.

“Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”



Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/she-survived-hitler-and-wants-to-warn-america.html#ixzz2GGHw5NMY">>>

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Too late for this election.

Found this here:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/she-survived-hitler-and-wants-to-warn-america.html#ixzz2Fzr5YTU1

<<<"

She survived Hitler and wants to warn America
kitty-werthmann2.jpg

Kitty Werthmann

Kitty Werthmann survived Hitler.

“What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books,” she likes to tell audiences.

“I am a witness to history.

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

hitler_heil-150x150.jpg

Adolph Hitler

“We voted him in.”

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

No so.

hitler-austria.gif

Hitler is welcomed to Austria

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent 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.’

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

hitler-austrian-women-300x238.jpg

Austrian girls welcome Hitler

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany 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,” remembers Kitty, “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.

hitler-uildup-to-world-war-2-15.jpg

Austrians saluting

“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.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

hitleryouth01-222x300.jpg

Poster promoting "Hitler Youth"

“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.”

And then things got worse.

“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,” remembers Kitty. “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.

hitler-crowd.jpg

A pro-Hitler rally

“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.

“Then food rationing began

“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.

hitler-youth.jpg

Young Austrians

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “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.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.

“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven 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.

“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.

hitler-nazi-march-300x209.jpg“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 percent 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, too

hilter_youth_mind_contol.jpg

Austrian kids loyal to Hitler

“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.

“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.

“Then they took our guns

“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 afterwards, 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.

kitty-werthmann.jpg

Kitty Werthmann

“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.”

“This is my 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 is truly is the greatest country in the world.

“Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/she-survived-hitler-and-wants-to-warn-america.html#ixzz2GGHw5NMY">>>

Just as she warned: Heil Obama. And his little blue shirt child auxillary The Obama Youth.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Just as she warned: Heil Obama. And his little blue shirt child auxillary The Obama Youth.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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We elected him by a landslide 98 percent of the vote, she recalls.

99.7%, actually. However:

During the few weeks between the Anschluss and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists and other potential political dissenters, as well as Jews, and imprisoned them or sent them to concentration camps. Within only a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The plebiscite was subject to large-scale propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 400,000 people (nearly 10% of the eligible voting population), mainly former members of left-wing parties and Jews. While historians concur that the result was not manipulated, the voting process was neither free nor secret. Officials were present directly beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand (in contrast to a secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a closed box). In some remote areas of Austria, people voted to preserve the independence of Austria on 13 March (in Schuschnigg's planned but officially cancelled plebiscite) despite the Wehrmacht's presence. For instance, in the village of Innervillgraten, a majority of 95% voted for Austria's independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss

Stimmzettel-Anschluss.jpg

"Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force."

No so.

Yes so.

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 wouldnt pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang 'Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,' and had physical education.

And in a speech made during the negotiations for the Nazi-Vatican Concordant of 1933, Hitler argued against secular schools, stating: "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany

Which is not to say she's lying about what happened and what was said on one particular day in one particular classroom. Overall, however, this piece does not pass the smell test.

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We elected him by a landslide 98 percent of the vote, she recalls.
... However:

During the few weeks between the Anschluss and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists and other potential political dissenters, as well as Jews, and imprisoned them or sent them to concentration camps. Within only a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The plebiscite was subject to large-scale propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 400,000 people (nearly 10% of the eligible voting population), mainly former members of left-wing parties and Jews. While historians concur that the result was not manipulated, the voting process was neither free nor secret. Officials were present directly beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand (in contrast to a secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a closed box). In some remote areas of Austria, people voted to preserve the independence of Austria on 13 March (in Schuschnigg's planned but officially cancelled plebiscite) despite the Wehrmacht's presence. For instance, in the village of Innervillgraten, a majority of 95% voted for Austria's independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss

One of the scholarship lapses in Leonard Peikoff's Ominous Parallels:

In the national election of July 1932, the Nazis obtained 37 percent of the vote and a plurality in the Reichstag. ... in the last (and semi-free) election of the pre-totalitarian period, the Nazis obtained 17 million votes, 44 percent of the total.

He neglects "semi-free" in the first statement, and obscures it in the second while neglecting to explain what he means.

By 1932 the Nazis had a private army of Brown Shirts (Sturmabteilung or SA) that were in force at major polls on election day, intimidating voters. 37% and 44% of the total voters may have voted Nazi, but Peikoff doesn't say what percent that was of the number of eligible voters, or address the subject of election fraud.

A minority can take over a country. In the U.S. today 20% or less support the burgeoning police state apparatus that the "powers that be" are setting up, yet its growth continues unabated. (That even 20% support it is very depressing.)

Time to reread They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer. The Ayn Rand Institute promotes the same breathless fear, all the while spouting platitudes about Americanism and freedom, as in It Can't Happen Here.

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I will accept the eye witness of how the Nazis come into Austria. They came in in the midst of acclimation. The Austrians were seig heiling all over the place. The German troops walked in, marched in but did not fight their way in.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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I agree that this is somewhat suspect. I am sure that she believes what she is saying, but I am not sure that she has her facts right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany

The Anschluss was complicated. Although before the event, a mass demonstration shouted the colors of Austria "Rot Weiss und Rot! Bis in den Todt.!" (Red White and Red! Until We're Dead!) As soon as the Wehrmacht rolled in, opposition collapsed. In fact, culturally, many Austrians aligned with Pangermanism. On the other hand, opposition to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Serbia, even France, was active. Not so in Austria.

Interestingly, because of geographic politics, fascist Italy was opposed to the Anschluss.

"No military confrontation took place and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy, France and Britain (the "Stresa Front") remained at peace."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss

The Daily Kos had an interesting confession writing about Kitty Werthmann:

I have learned something from this process. While many here on Dailykos, myself included, can't understand why Obama would not make health care a national program with the simplicity of single payer, or why he did not nationalize the banks that were no longer viable economic entities....the answer lies in Ms. Wertmann's speeches, and the reaction of them to a fairly large following----currently under the banner of teabaggers.

Hitler did (to the best of my knowledge) actually nationalize the banks, and in Austria replaced private health insurance companies with British Style universal care. And this was a surprise to me--he believed in an activist government that in other ways would protect the people (well, not all people) in promoting epidemiological studies and preventing use of tobacco (See ADL article)

The ADL article linked above actually describes the positive aspects of Nazi governance and refutes the illusion that since the regime was the apotheosis of evil, that nothing about it could have been positive. I doubt that such an article could have been written much before now, after those who lived through the Nazi horrors are mostly gone.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/02/10/825553/-Kitty-Werthmann-Distorted-Memories-of-Anschluss#

Replacing Christian symbols (the Cross, the Bible) with Nazi symbols (sword, Mein Kampf) happened later about 1944 as the end was near and things spun totally out of control ... as if they were not already (but think of Cuffy Meigs in the last third of Atlas Shrugged). Just to say, her memories are colored by modern history.

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What is the fastest thing on four wheels? Answer: A one legged Jew roller skating out of Austria the day after the Anschluss.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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I will accept the eye witness of how the Nazis come into Austria. They came in in the midst of acclimation. The Austrians were seig heiling all over the place. The German troops walked in, marched in but did not fight their way in.

And if I post a contradictory eye witness account? And sure, the Austrians could have fought back, and it would have been like how the Danes fought back. Do the words fait accompli mean anything to you? Who was going to help, the Brits under Chamberlain?

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Nine, the Danes did not "fight" back. They passively resisted, refusing to work. They smuggled something like 90,000 Jews out of Denmark to Sweden. The Austrians did no such things. In fact, no armies fought back against the Germans, except the Russians, and even they retreated beyond the range of operations and let Winter take its toll. Partisans engaged the Germans for what it was worth, mostly feel-good combat of little effect. But the armies just caved in... wiith one exception.

"Everywhere, where the order is to hold, it is the duty of conscience of each fighter, even if he depends on himself alone, to fight at his assigned position. The riflemen, if overtaken or surrounded, fight in their position until no more ammunition exists. The cold steel is next.... The machine-gunners, the cannoneers of heavy weapons, the artillerymen, if in the bunker or on the field, do not abandon or destroy their weapons, or allow the enemy to seize them. Then the crews fight further like riflemen. As long as a man has another cartridge or hand weapon to use, he does not yield. " -- General Henri Guisan (1874-1960), order to Swiss troops, 1940: http://www.swissworld.org

Harry Browne's book, How to Profit from a Monetary Crisis includes a fantasy about the land of Rheingold. The Germans rolled in, stole some cheese and wine, killed some innocent people and then were chased out the by Americans who stole some cheese and wine, and killed some innocent people. Through these trepidations, the Rheingolders just minded their own business.

Bad things happen to good people. We think that all featherless bipeds are rational animals, so we think that we can engage invaders with logic. Really, it may be that like volcanoes, earthquakes, and blizzards invading armies are just something that happens and you have to deal with it as a physical - not moral - event. That said, though, the Swiss were told to ignore any commands from the capital to surrender as such broadcasts would only come from the enemy. That infuriated the Germans, but they did not invade Switzerland.

(And yes these options would apply to the Newtown, Auroram and similar tragedies.)

And they apply to us here and now. Washington DC only has the power we give it. if we disobey their laws, they will be mostly powerless. Instead. we accept an internalized Anschluss: call it Einschluss.

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Michael:

In fact, no armies fought back against the Germans, except the Russians, and even they retreated beyond the range of operations and let Winter take its toll.

I guess this does not count?

The Polish Resistance

422690.jpg

  1. On November 9, 1939, the two soldiers of Polish army Witold Pilecki and Major Jan Włodarkiewicz founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland after defeat.Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin and other major cities of central Poland
  2. Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded
  3. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed

http://peteyrocks.weebly.com/polands-resistance.html

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Kitty Werthmann has a wonderful imagination. But what she says is not published in a peer reviewed journal and did not pass peer review. It's just a story, and a mere story is not science.

Werthmann's theory is of no value because it makes no predictions. In this way it is as bad as string theory. String theory is so bad that it is not even false, because it makes no predictions.

So Kitty Werthmann's theory should be rejected as junk science. It's garbage.

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I guess this does not count?
  • On November 9, 1939, the two soldiers of Polish army Witold Pilecki and Major Jan Włodarkiewicz founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland after defeat.Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin and other major cities of central Poland
  • Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded
  • By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed

http://peteyrocks.weebly.com/polands-resistance.html

It certainly does count. It also supports my major premise. The Polish Army surrendered and these men continued on their own. How "secret" 8000 people can be is putative, but somebody smuggled the Cryptographic Unit out of Poland and into Romania and thence to France and the UK.

As the likelihood of war increased in 1939, Britain and France pledged support for Poland in the event of action that threatened her independence.[65] In April, Germany withdrew from the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of January 1934. The Polish General Staff, realizing what was likely to happen, decided to share their work on Enigma decryption with their western allies. Marian Rejewski later wrote:

t was not [as Harry Hinsley suggested, cryptological] difficulties of ours that prompted us to work with the British and French, but only the deteriorating political situation. If we had had no difficulties at all we would still, or even the more so, have shared our achievements with our allies as our contribution to the struggle against Germany.[63][66]

On 17 September 1939, as the Soviet Army invaded eastern Poland, Cipher Bureau personnel crossed their country's southeastern border into Romania. They eventually made their way to France, and on 20 October 1939, at PC Bruno outside Paris, the Polish cryptanalists resumed work on German Enigma ciphers in collaboration with Bletchley Park.[73]

63.^ a b Rejewski 1982, p. 80

66.^ Kozaczuk 1984, p. 64

73.^ Kozaczuk 1984, pp. 69–94, 104–11

Kozaczuk, Władysław (1984), Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher was Broken, and how it was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek (2 ed.), Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, ISBN 978-0-89093-547-7 A revised and augmented translation of W kręgu enigmy, Warsaw, Książka i Wiedza, 1979, supplemented with appendices by Marian Rejewski

Kozaczuk, Władysław; Straszak, Jerzy (2004), Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code, New York: Hippocrene Books, ISBN 978-0-7818-0941-2 Largely an abridgment of Kozaczuk 1984, minus Rejewski's appendices, which have been replaced with appendices of varying quality by

other authors

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma

The Poles had been reading German Enigma messages for several years. They knew full well what was coming. It might seem inevitable, or maybe a "what if" would be science fiction, as in "what if the French had paid attention to deGaulle's theories on tank warfare... What if the Poles had dedicated themselves to anti-aircraft and knocked the Luftwaffe from the skies; or long-range rockets? 350 miles from Warsaw to Berlin and only 170 miles from Poznan. ... seems doable...

The real problem is that Poland was a military dictatorship. Bright as its boffins were, Cuffy Meigs was in charge, as is so often the case.

And did that 8000-man underground actually accomplish anything military against the Germans? Did they force the Germans out, or prevent the invasion of the USSR? Or act on their own with the Russians out to cut off the Germans and sever the Wehrmacht like a worm caught in a mower? Did they liberate any concentration camps?

France had a resistance also, of about 80 million people tallied after the war all of whom resisted the Germans for five years.

I agree that when faced with overwhelming force, resistance is futile. That said, though, it is not clear to me that Germany in the 30s and 40s - like the USSR in the "Cold War" - was anything more than a bluff. If you were living under communism and drunk all the time, what kind of ICBMs would you build?

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