Freedom. Precious Freedom.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
-Ronald Reagan (40th President of the United States of America 1981-1989) 

I've got something heavy weighing on my mind. Freedom and some important history pertaining to it. 

This posting is about the freedoms we once held dear and how they are being slowly taken from us. We are unfortunately not doing anything to fight to keep them. Let me tell you where I got the information I will soon share with you.

I went to a Freedom conference about 6 weeks ago and I heard a woman speak. Her story brought me to tears. Her name is Kitty Werthmann. Kitty was born in Austria in 1926 and lived in there for 24 years. 7 years under Hitler’s brutal regime, another 3 years after WWII and another 3 years in the USSR. She shares experiences from her life-- how Hitler slowly crept into power, and slowly took over every aspect of their lives. It is eerily familiar and has a powerful message. 

Kitty Werthmann

It was simply fascinating to listen to Kitty’s account of her life and growing up as a young girl in Austria as Hitler was first elected to power after his awesome track record in Germany and the way he slowly took over Austria in his quest for world domination. The citizens in Austria were also sitting by uneducated and unaware of what was going on. They were just too quick to let their freedoms be pried from their un-grasped fingers. We all know the tragedies that befell them as a result.

I have studied Kitty’s speech several times since ordering the audio, and what I have found I would like to share with you. Here is her story:

Before Hitler came into power, Austria was completely bankrupt. (Sound familiar?)

There was 30% unemployment. (We are slowly getting there.)  

The media was completely false and biased in their reporting’s. (Yep. America too.)   

Hitler promised that if he was elected, everyone would be able to work. He would give every farmer their farms back from the ‘greedy’ banks that foreclosed on them. He would also give every business owner their businesses back from the banks. He promised people hope. They were smitten. (Funny, we were too. With just one extra word. Change. Hope and Change.)

Since Germany at the time seemed to be flourishing economically and there was hardly any crime, Hitler’s plan seemed to be wonderful and it seemed to be working. 98% of Austrians elected Hitler into position. How could 98% of this Christian country could elect such a monster? Kitty asked… Then she replied that he didn’t look or sound like a monster, but actually looked and sounded like a charming American Politician. Joke? Unfortunately not.

Once he was elected, little changes began happening.

The people in Austria never questioned anything. They simply trusted Hitler and Germany. They knew what they were doing there and would succeed in governing the people of Austria.

The first thing that Hitler did was Nationalize the Banks.

The second thing Hitler did was Nationalize the car industry.

The next thing that happened was equal rights. Equal rights for women. (Because equal rights, is the first step in distributing the wealth.) {The feminist movement here in America was a big plan on the agenda of those desiring Communism. FYI} 

Austria had 7 states. Hitler said that 4 states would be a lot easier to govern than 7 and forced a merge into just 4 states, saying that it would be easier and cheaper to have 4. This is Called Regionalism. Regionalism takes away local control. (There have been 3 recent attempts to do this in South Dakota that I know of.)  

Hitler then said that everybody had a right to a guaranteed income. If your income wasn’t what the government said it should be-you got food stamps, you got heating fuel, you got subsidized housing. Sounds like welfare to me. How did the government pay for this? The taxes slowly got up to 70%.

Then, Hitler Nationalized Education. There is a fascinating yet eerie back story to this that I edited out. If you’re interested in hearing it, email me: livinghalfalive{at}gmail{dot}com

Guess what Hitler nationalized right after Education?

Healthcare.

It was free for everybody.

The healthcare in Austria prior to this was excellent, financed by private insurance. There were good doctors and very good hospitals. Kitty then said “This all changed.”

Her brother in law was a doctor. Soon after the nationalization, he would go to work and by 9:00 AM there were already 40 patients lined up at the office. He described it as “practicing medicine on a conveyor belt.” He only had a few minutes per patient. Doctors were put on salaries. No more money went into medical research. Only a few medicines were allowed to be covered through this nationalized healthcare system. If a doctor prescribed a medicine that was not on the list, it came out of their personal salary. Soon the salaries began to dwindle. Soon many doctors decided to leave the country.

The Austrian equivalent to OSHA started shutting businesses down like crazy. This made way for only government owned big businesses, and more control.

Farmers began to be given strict requirements. Even down to the number of eggs their chickens had to lay. Food began to be rationed.

Abortions became legal. (I’m disgusted and frightened with all these parallels.)

Hitler then began to euthanize. 

One of the problems with abortion and euthanasia is that once we decide it is not a problem to kill innocent unborn babies and it is not a problem to kill the elderly or the physically or mentally disabled, who else is it not going to be a problem to kill? Well, obviously the Jews were next on Hitler’s list. Who will it be the next time around? I worry that it will be me or someone that I love.

Then a federal police force began to grow. The Gestapo, or Nazi secret police, was everywhere. They dressed in civilian clothes and spied on everyone. People began to disappear, anyone who opposed began to disappear.  

Next, Austrians were manipulated into giving up their guns. How? First everyone was required to register them, and told this would help with the crime rate. Sounds awesome right? Well, it was a trick. 6 months later after they were all registered, the government required them to be turned in. Since the government tricked each citizen into registering each gun, they had record of each gun, there was no way to get away with keeping your gun. If you didn’t turn in your gun, you would be killed. This step prevented a revolution. Kitty says the only weapons they were eventually left with were their broomsticks. She also said that the only country Hitler couldn’t take over was Switzerland. That was because they refused to give up their guns. 

Next, the churches were nationalized. He required some of the income tax to be paid to the churches. This is the way he got to control the priests and other clergymen.

Slowly and surely Germany had crept in and dominated every aspect of their lives. Pretty soon they had no freedoms. Pretty soon they had no weapons. Pretty soon they had no choice but to comply or be killed.  Pretty soon another country on Hitler’s list could successfully be checked off. 

Before they ever knew what was happening, and before they had a mind to stop it every aspect of their lives was under complete control. These things didn’t happen overnight. It happened little by little over the course of 5 years until Austria had a complete dictatorship. By 1943 the seemingly small and insignificant laws, rules and regulations had slowly crept up into full dictatorship. The boarders were closed. The newspaper was being censored and the radios were nationally run. There was no freedom of speech.

Kitty closes her powerful message: “America is the greatest country in the world. If we can keep it.” 

I'm not sure at this rate we can keep it. There are way too many eerie parallel’s to what is happening with our current administration. One thing that I do know, the communist agenda is pretty straight forward. There is a plan and it is laid right out. They know exactly what needs to be done in order to take over a country as powerful as America.

It's also no secret what needs to be done. Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky lays it all out. The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen lays it all out. Agenda: Grinding America Down by Curtis Bowers lays it all out. {I could go on but those are good starting points} 

They want us. Those with the communist agenda know that if they succeed in getting America, there is no stopping them. They also know that right now we are too ignorant to notice anything that is going on and therefore won't try to stop them until it is too late. These parallels are not coincidences. We need to wake America up. They will continue to take away our freedoms so long as we stay silent. We need to hold precious and fight for the freedoms and rights that were given to us by God and by the Founding Fathers of the American Constitution. The Government is getting too big and way too involved in our personal lives. If we do not get rid of the big government takeover we are doomed to repeat communism in this, the last and greatest free country in the world.

We, just like the Austrians, put way too much trust into a sweet talker and charmer. All it took was 2 words, Hope and Change, and we gave a lot of power to a man we knew little about. It is eerie however how similarly Hitler ran his country. The little changes that at first may seem innocent, things like nationalizing banks and the car industry… Obama did these with little notice and little opposition. Bigger changes then become easier and more tolerable to make, like nationalizing healthcare. I keep bashing the feminist movement, because equal rights for women starts a mindset that everyone should be equal. This is exactly how the communists take over the country. They plant ideas like this into the heads of people and then more radical ideas become tolerable. Same idea with the abortion and euthanasia. Once some killing is ok, soon it’s justifiable to kill more.

The Austrians were manipulated slowly until it was too late. It is so far not too late for us, but let us not wake up one morning with no guns, and no freedoms and then realize what it is we have done in our ignorance. Let us do our part to preserve freedom. Education is the most important thing I can think of to do this. Educate yourselves and others on the quest to preserve Freedom. Precious Freedom.