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freeleyenrashespeakstruth · 1 year

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By Kitty Werthmann

“I am a witness to history.

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

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 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.

“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.

“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 re- quired to give up for marriage.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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

“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 livestock, 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.

“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.

“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 eyewitness 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.”

Kitty Werthmann

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sandersstudies · 7 months

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My directing friends and I have a bit we do where if a child runs up to us, says something with no context, and then runs away, we call it “NPC behavior.”

Just imagine a game with Skyrim-like controls and graphics but set in a schoolroom or youth activity where the NPCs just walk up like

“My Uncle taught me about large mouth bass... maybe I can pass this knowledge on to you?”

“My mommy and daddy are getting a divorce :).”

“Hail, stranger, have you heard of the swarm of roving kindergarteners to the east? They won’t stop causing trouble for the lunchmaiden… perhaps she would reward you if you… heh… rid her of the problem.”

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alt-vera · 1 year

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I NEED MORE JOEL FICS PLSSS

— neon moon ⁀➷

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

joel miller see’s a face he hasn’t seen in years. one he thought he’d never see again.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

♡ | joel miller | 1.9k | ❛ neon moon - brooks & dunn ❜

warnings: drinking. praise. oral (f!recieving). soft!joel miller. dom undertones. unprotected piv sex. age gap. mdni.

❝ i think of two young lovers, a-running wild and free, i close my eyes and sometimes see you in the shadows of this smoke filled room ❞

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

JOEL HAD THOUGHT IT WAS JUST HIS IMAGINATION AT FIRST.

　It’d happened before. He’d a seen a girl with curly brown hair, and thought it was Sarah, but it was just his cruel imagination playing sickening tricks on him. This, though, this was no trick of the mind.

　There you were, sitting on a rugged barstool in the bar of Jackson. You were the last person Joel expected to see when he’d come to get a drink after a long day of labouring Jackson’s newest endeavours, but there you were. In the flesh and not even ten feet away from him.

　He cautiously approached you, as if in disbelief. You looked so much different from when Joel had knew you, just a young girl barely out of high school, a babysitter for his daughter, before the world was engulfed in flames.

　You sensed a strangely familiar presence burning holes into your back, and your head turned slowly to meet Joel’s gaze, your mouth falling agape before it inched into a smile.

　“Wow,” You breathed out, “Tommy wasn’t kidding. It really is you.”

　Your name left Joel’s lips in a tone of wariness, as if you were going to disappear within the smoke that surrounded the two of you, a grim phantom of his past receding into thin air. But you didn’t. You stayed in your seat, not moving a muscle as you stared at him, elation clouding your tired eyes.

　“What’re you doin’ here?” He asked. He didn’t mean for it to sound accusatory, but years of fighting for his life had hardened him into a shell of the man you knew. Still, your smile didn’t falter.

　“Tommy found me on patrol this morning, and recognized me. I’d been wandering for a few months, and they offered me a house and a teaching position once the schoolroom’s are built.”

　A teacher. That’s what you were going to go to college for before hell on earth struck. Joel had thought everyone’s dreams would’ve been broken after all these years, but here you were in front of him, achieving yours after an eternity of waiting.

　“He said that’s what you were helping to build, actually,” You continued, and your head tilted with a teasing air. “Guess even in an apocalypse, you can’t escape the contracting business, huh?”

　Joel couldn’t help himself as his lips upturned, and a faint chuckle grumbled within him. It felt so humane to be with someone he knew again, someone who knew the real him before the world calloused his personality.

　He took a seat beside you, a bottle of beer sliding in front of him. He took note of you, of how your body shifted more toward him, of how your fingers tapped softly on the hardwood bar top to the rhythm of the music spilling out of the jukebox in the corner.

　As the two of you talked, the sky grew darker and the moon reared it’s head through the windows of the bar. You tiptoed around the subject of Sarah, and Joel assumed that Tommy informed you of her demise. You were careful not to say her name as the two of you discussed the past.

　“I can’t believe you’re here,” Joel admitted after a few beers, the booze burning away his carefully built walls like fire licking a wooden fence.

　“Y’know, I looked for you before we left Texas,” He continued, voice growing sullen and quiet. You watched as his eyes sank into his drink, staring as if his eyes could melt the bottle surrounding his beer. “Couldn’t find ya.”

　“I got out of dodge as soon as the police started showing up on every corner of campus,” You replied softly, resting a reassuring hand on Joel’s forearm. You felt the muscle tense under your touch. “I didn’t know you’d come looking for me.”

　“Well, you were like family,” Joel said, and you swore you heard him mutter under his breath, “Probably still could be.”

　“Well i’m here now,” You said light-heartedly, attempting to steer the conversation away from such sad topics. The past was the past, and neither of you could change that.

　The more the two of you drank, the more it wore you down, and it began to feel like nothing had changed. As if you were still his daughters babysitter who left a plate of dinner for him stashed in the fridge every night, and he was the dad who’d change your oil and fix your jewellery box when the hinges rusted.

　“Y’know, i used to have such a crush on you,” You admitted with a drunken laugh, and you watched Joel’s eyes widen in skepticism.

　“I don’t know how,” Joel chuckled, “Every time you saw me i was sweaty and covered in sawdust. Probably stunk.”

　“Well, I like a working man,” You commented, taking another swig of your beer, and Joel noticed how you words were still in present tense. It wasn’t liked, it was like.

　Your eyes glanced to the clock on the wall, and you sighed, downing the rest of your nearly empty bottle. “I better get going,” You rose from your seat, and Joel mirrored your actions. “Early start tomorrow. Gotta start preparing lessons and a curriculum for the rascals.”

　“I’ll walk you home,” Joel offered, and you accepted his proposal with a gracious smile.

　It was summertime, and Joel was thankful for the cool night breeze to save from the heat of the day. It raised pleasant goosebumps on his skin, listening to the bugs rustling and singing in the grass.

　Joel couldn’t help how his eyes tracked you, the moon illuminating you in a spotlight, your body dancing through the beams as you walked towards the small house Tommy and Maria had put you up in.

　You stopped on your porch, and Joel stood close to you. Dangerous close. You breathed him in, and tipsy words left your lips before you could register what the hell you were saying.

　“You still smell the same,” You breathed, dulcet tone coating your words, “Sweat, and wood, and beer. That’s what i liked most about you.”

　“Liked?” Joel questioned, taking an indulgent step towards you. “By the way you were talkin’ earlier, it seems like you still have a thing for me.”

　“Maybe i do,” You whispered, and Joel’s calloused fingers came to dance along your jaw, tucking under your chin to gently lift your face up to look at him. Your face was ruddy with vulnerability and tipple.

　His lips met yours, coaxing and honeyed with lust. He pressed you up against the wall of your house, the solidness behind you pushing you closer to him until your chests were touching. His hands found your waist, one creeping down to cradle your ass through your jeans. You melted into him.

　No one was out this late, but still, you were new to town and didn’t want to chance earning a bad rep before you could even introduce yourself. “Inside,” You breathed, and your voice was euphonious to Joel’s ears.

　He craved this, he craved you, and the two of you barely made it up the stairs and into your bedroom before Joel was on top of you, fingers unbuttoning your jeans as he slid them down your legs.

　Positioned between your spread legs, his tongue licked a stripe through your underwear. You moaned, fingers weaving through his silvery hair as he chucked the barrier off and down your legs, licking again as his nose tickled your clit. He flexed his tongue, allowing it to enter you before curling it and allowing it to drag out of you and up to lap at your clit.

　“So sweet, baby,” He cooed, “Just like i knew you’d be.”

　He continued to fuck you with his tongue until you bucked against his face, stubble scratching the plushness of your thighs as you rode your high out against him.

　He chuckled as your hands left his hair to cover your face in embarrassment at your actions. He carefully peeled your fingers away from your face, smiling. “C’mon baby,” He flattered, “Let me see that pretty face. I haven’t seen it in s’long.”

　He rose from between your legs and crawled over you to straddle you, pressing velvety kisses to your cheek, peppering down your neck until they reached the hem of your tee. He peeled it off of you, unclipping your bra as well, kisses turning into soft licks and bites as he took one of your buds in his mouth.

　You could feel the hardness of his cock pressing into your thigh as he continued his actions

　“Joel,” You mumbled, fingers tracing the bottom of his shirt. “Please, i need you.”

　Those simple yet enticing words were enough to have Joel kicking it into high gear, sloppily chucking his clothes onto your bedroom floor. He pumped his cock in his large hand, precum spilling into his palm as his sonorous voice spoke, “Are you ready, darlin’?”

　You nodded as his tip slipped between your folds, collecting the slick Joel had left there earlier. He tutted, “Words, baby. Use your words.”

　“I’m ready,” You replied wantonly, words being broken by strained breaths as he pushed himself inside you. Even with the prep, the stretch still caused an ache deep within your core as his head kissed your cervix, but you fought the pain and focused on the pleasure as he began slow thrusts up into you, hips meeting your own.

　A lewd moan left your mouth as Joel began to pick up speed, fingers coming to deftly circle your clit to guide you through your euphoria.

　“Wanted this for years,” Joel groaned, words spilling from his lips uncontrollably, “Knew it was wrong to want such a pretty, young thing, but you were so damn cute in your cutoffs, talkin’ about changing kids lives and all that.”

　His accent became thicker the more he fucked you and the closer he came to cumming.

　“Knew you’d be such a good girl,” He continued, and another pleasured moan graced his ears, “Just like ya are now. Takin’ me so well like this, lettin’ me fuck you after not seein’ me for so long.”

　His praises were the straw that broke the camels back as you clenched around him, swallowing him whole as you came.

　“Good,” He breathed out, fucking you into overstimulation, “So fuckin’ tight for me, baby.”

　You met his thrusts with shaking legs, and you felt his seed spill inside you, coating you and filling you, creating a creamy ring around Joel’s base as he fucked you until he physically couldn’t.

　With a shaky breath he pulled out of you, sweat beading along his hairline and sheerness covering both of your bodies. He rose from your bed, pulling on his boxers before disappearing into your house, coming back seconds later with a wet washcloth.

　He gently wiped the mess between your legs, trying not to laugh when you twitched from the friction against your overworked clit. He put the cloth on your bedside table, handing you your tee and watching you modestly pull it over your naked form.

　He laid beside you after that, pulling you into his arms and tenderly stroking your hair, pressing kisses to your temple.

　The neon moon peeked at the two of you through your bedroom windows, coating you both in it’s glistening beams as you stayed like that, holding each other and catching your breaths, unsure of what tribulations the next day would bring as the moon would eventually dance away.

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alilsakurablossom · 9 days

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au where grantaire asks enjolras if he has an aging portrait of himself in his old schoolroom in the attic when they first meet

#les mis #les miserables #grantaire #enjolras #enjoltaire #exr #the portrait of dorian gray

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canyourfavesurvivecastledracula · 22 days

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Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors?

ooooOOOooooooh

Does it make a difference whether ut's Audrey II from the original movie, from the stage musical, or from the film adaptation of the musical? I think their (her? its?) character is largely the same in all three, but I believe only the third text provides any mechanism by which the plant can be destroyed: electricity. And there is no electricity in Castle Dracula (presumably just one of many reasons he's looking for a new house).

The trouble with Audrey II is that she and Dracula are two of a kind - obligate hæmovores bent on conquest who exert a mesmeric power and have satanic/demonic coding (Audrey II as a Tempter, Dracula just for funzies). Who is playing whom? Is Audrey II there as Dracula's invited guest? Or did this Strange Plant just appear in the Castle during a TO-TAL E-CLIPSE OF THE SUN (da-doop).

[I looked it up, there was a total solar eclipse on April 16th, 1893 - the date on which, according to Stoker's notes, Jonathan Harker visited Mina at her schoolroom before departing for Transylvania - probably for the purpose of proposing. This is a convenient moment for Audrey II to have arrived on our planet. Unfortunately this eclipse was off the coast of Brazil, which is a bit out of the way for our purposes]

Okay it's bothering me - what are Audrey II's pronouns? The human characters refer to the plant as "it." Or should it be "she," because Audrey II self identifies as a mother (specifically, one that is mean, green and from outer space). Is there any clue botanically - Audrey II reproduces both sexually and asexually (that is, both via flowers and via cuttings - and possibly spores? As in "I swear by all my spores" - but Audrey II at least appears to be an angiosperm why are there spores?? But Audrey II is also an alien so maybe the question is "why not") I... yeah I dunno. You guys decide:

So okay. We know Audrey II can fake being in distress to basically beg for treats. Like Dracula, feeding seems only to increase its hunger (and power). All plants will happily drink blood (they sell blood meal fertilizer, it's a good source of potassium) but Audrey II seems to actually require it. Does this mean she doesn't require normal Plant Things like water and sunlight? Seymore initially cares for it like an ordinary plant and it doesn't help, but it remains unclear whether the blood is sufficient as well as necessary. Like, it's not like he stops watering it, right? Although given that the plant travels through space and arrives during an eclipse, it might well not require things like sunlight and rain.

Does Dracula want a houseplant that is going to be competing with him for nourishment? Or is it convenient that he doesn't have to go for groceries twice, as it were? Since Audrey II frequently eats people whole, is this a good waste disposal unit to avoid vampire toddlers clogging up the Castle? Will Audrey II be content being tossed the scraps and leftovers of the Castle's humanoid residents. Does Dracula really want a fourth thing in his Castle incessantly demanding to be fed? Audrey II is not particularly solicitous about her needs - and very much does not do as she's told.

Audrey II is fundamentally a Tempter - what can they offer to Dracula that he can't already do for himself? There's a reason that Audrey II textually preys on a desperate impoverished orphan - just as Dracula does. I want to say Audrey II is a master manipulator but... really all they seem to do is find a poor schmuck with nothing going for him, give him a taste of success, and then browbeat him into submission. Dracula will not respond well to this approach. Dracula is not really the right kind of Mark for the Mean Green Mother from Outer Space - until or unless he actually moves to London. It's no Cleveland, but it's still extremely edible.

I guess what I keep circling back to is that they're too similar. They want the same things - to glut themselves on teeming millions in an ever-widening circlre of ...plants... perhaps for centuries to come. Neither is terribly useful to the other because they each have the same role. Dracula is not going to be feeding Audrey II with his own blood - he may decide to feed it with other people's blood but... why? Audrey II can't tempt Dracula with fortune and fame and the girl of his dreams. Neither is going to be especially tolerant of the other's attitude. Most frustratingly, neither one can eat the other. Well, Audrey II physically can eat Dracula (if someone's been feeding her up to this point), but I doubt Dracula would fall for "come close enough to trip and fall into my open mouth" you know? Especially with the shape-shifting and the mistform and all that.

Okay wait I think I've got it. Dracula and Audrey II is kind of a non-starter, but Dracula isn't the only person who lives there. I think the Girlies and Audrey II could come to some kind of arrangement. They'd feed it their leftovers, and in return the world's Most Interesting Plant might be an ally for them against Dracula. Again though, nobody is going to respond well to Audrey II just hurling abuse at them when she doesn't get her way. But I am enchanted by the idea of the Girlies and their Green Best Friend moving to London in Dracula's place and opening a little flower shop and then just happily eating people together forever. Maybe they can set up next door to that pie shop in Fleet Street

I am gonna call this one at I really don't know

#little shop of horrors #audrey ii #botanica #aliens #opera and musicals

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