![]() “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. ![]() “When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service. “Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. “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. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. “They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal 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. “It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. “I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. “My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. “The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.” They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. ![]() Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. “Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. 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. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools.
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