Hitler Regime Survivor Recalls Childhood in Austria

RIO GRANDE — Those who put their faith in government, sure that it has all the answers, should hear a South Dakota woman tell what life was in Austria when it allowed a sinister group to gain power with its solutions.
Kitty Werthmann, 84, a parental rights advocate, was interviewed by telephone Tue., Aug. 3, a day before she spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. about life in Austria when Adolph Hitler assumed power.
Werthmann is president of the South Dakota chapter of Eagle Forum. According to its website, Eagle Forum supports American sovereignty, American identity, supports the Constitution, exposes radical feminists, and supports traditional education.
She lobbies the state Legislature there on family issues. She has been a U.S. citizen since 1962.
The Pierre, S.D. resident was 12 years old when a 98 percent majority elected Hitler on March 13, 1938.
“I was in the sixth grade. I remember I was in public school, and we prayed in public school,” said Werthmann. She recalled there was a crucifix on the wall, but the morning after Hitler assumed power, the crucifix was gone. In its place was a photograph of Hitler and the Nazi flag.
“The teacher said, ‘Today, we do not pray any more,’ and we sang Deutschland Uber Alles.”
Werthmann also said religion was no longer taught in the schools, replaced by physical education classes.
Sunday, when many pupils would attend church with their parents, became a mandatory day of attendance…at National Youth Day. Timing was exactly when churches held services, Werthmann said. If parents refused to allow their children to attend the youth days, at first they were sent a letter of warning.
The second time they missed the day, there was a fine of about $300, an enormous amount at the time. If children still did not attend a third time, parents were jailed, Werthmann said.
“We attended National Youth Day, at 8 a.m. and we had two hours of political education. Today, I would call it political indoctrination. We were told not to listen to our parents, only to listen to Hitler,” she said.
“Our parents were old fashioned. We had rights and freedom; they (government) literally drove a wedge between our parents and us. Of course, my parents were devout Christians, and my mother was especially concerned. She took me out of public school and enrolled me in a private school with an excellent curriculum,” she continued.
Werthmann recalled the tearful separation of mother and daughter as she began attending that school, around which was an eight-foot wall and a locked iron gate.
“She was a very wise woman. She said, ‘Someday when you grow up you will realize what I am doing for you.’ Had she not intervened, I would have become a radical socialist.
“Needless to say, I thank my mother a thousand times over for saving me from the horrible humanistic system in our public schools,” Werthmann said.
As time passed, and she returned on holidays to her hometown, Werthmann saw some of her young friends having “babies for Hitler.” Unwed mothers were “glorified” for helping to bring about a new “master race” of blonde-haired, blue-eyed humans.
“Of course, the young generation did not go to church any more. Now, there are five generations raised without God or church. It’s any wonder many churches in Europe are empty except for tourists,” she added.
Werthmann said after the Nazis took over, free radios were distributed, but only one voice could be heard on them: the voice of the government.
Those who listened to foreign stations, such as BBC or Swiss Radio, faced a death penalty.
Newspapers were censored.
“The only voice we heard was the government radio station,” she said.
“Then, Hitler looted the ‘Jewish’ banks and nationalized our banks. Then, our only car industry was nationalized, and produced a car known as a Scyer, something slightly bigger than a Fiat, she recalled.
Prior to government takeover, the health care system was “excellent” Werthmann said.
Once it was nationalized, she said, her brother-in-law, a physician, told her that it was “like practicing medicine on a conveyor belt.”
People went to doctors for everything. It was routine for the physician to begin the day with 40 patients waiting to see him.
Medicine under government control, she said, was “totally destructive to free enterprise and citizens,” Werthmann said.
“Dictatorship did not happen over night,” Werthmann recalled. “It took five years, gradually from 1938 to 1943.
Gun registration came first, then gun confiscation, she recalled. “Then came dictatorship.”
She pointed to the neutral Swiss, where “everyone owns guns. All the military has guns in the closet at home ready to go,” she said.
“Switzerland did not have a war for over 600 years. Keep your guns,” Werthmann urged.
In her last year of college, she was sent to a small village for practice teaching. She said in that village, there were about 15 mentally handicapped individuals. One was the school’s janitor, “Vincent” who provided useful, albeit menial work.
“One morning, I looked out the window. People, including Vincent, were being put into a van. I inquired where they were going. They were taking them to an institution. They asked their parents permission, and they were told they were going to teach them (mentally handicapped) to read and write and learn a trade. They let them go,” said Werthmann.
About six months later, those parents received letters from the state health department telling them that their son or daughter had died a natural, merciful death. They wanted perfect people, not handicapped people,” Werthmann said.
“As a matter of fact, we were always seeing movies where they took films from mental hospitals, and how those people were such a burden on the taxpayers. We really didn’t need to have those people around,” she said.
Those movies were part of Joseph Goebbles’ campaign. He used the movie industry to make films of propaganda that were shown before every movie,” Werthmann said.
Silence, Werthmann said, was the secret to survival.
“You were not sent to a labor camp as long as you kept your mouth shut, the Gestapo did not touch you, as long as you did not speak out against the government of Hitler, they left you alone,” she said.
Werthmann came to the United States in 1950, first to Minneapolis, Minn, where she met her husband.
They relocated to South Dakota, where she remains a resident.
Like an evangelist, Werthmann travels around the country, speaking to whatever group is willing to listen to her recollections of life under a totalitarian government.
Although she has authored no books, she may in the future, she said.
“There are not many of us around any more,” said Werthmann. “I was an eyewitness to history. They cannot refute me. I was there,” she concluded.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com