Who is Josef Fritzl?
Since last Sunday, the whole world knows his name.
The man who locked up his own daughter in the cellar for 24 years, raped, and made her pregnant 6 times.
But who is that man who can do such cruel things to his own daughter?
The 73-year-old has also seven children with his wife, and is known as a very good technican. He has visited the polytechnic school for electrical engineering. His first employer was the VÖEST, a world famous steel factory in the city of Linz.
Between 1969 and 1971 he was working for a building material company in Amstetten. He was constructing concrete pipe machines, and one of the best and most intelligent workers.
In 1993 he changed his field of activity and bought a restaurant in a little village close to the town of Amstetten.
In the past years Josef Fritzl was known as a successful businessman. He also started dealing with real estates. He bought houses in Lower Austrias capital St. Pölten, as well as in the Lower Austrian town of Waidhofen/Ybbs, and rented them as apartments.
The only strange thing his neighbours recognised was, that he was never seen with his children in public.
I live in America, and saw this story on ABC news This is horrible, and I pray for Elisabeth and her childern. What kind of sick father is he. This man should be locked up for the rest of his life, and neutered. I know Elisabeth, most likely has some terrible mental problems and so does her childern after finding out the truth.
I will keep them in my prayers. Just lock up Josef and throw away the key.
I am also Austrian, born in Steyr (south of Linz) and have lived in Canada since I was 4 years old. My father was also authoritarian, and a tyrant. He developed schitzophrenia in his 50’s and made the life of my mother and I a living hell. I am his ownly son, and I am certain that if I would have been his daughter I would also have been raped and beaten. I managed to physically restrain him from beating my mother when I was 14 and he left us the next day. I contacted him 16 years later, at which time he only assaulted me with verbal abuse and scorn; the “interaction” lasted 5 minutes. Another 15 years passed and I was notified that he was found dead (one and a half months)in his one room apartment. He was completely mad by this time. Two years ago I went back to Austria to his home town of Scheipps and spoke to a childhood friend of his who was in his late 80’s and found out that Karl spent time in Mauthausen Concentration Camp. This I suppose explained at least some of his “mental illness”. This topic has interested me all my life because I have often questioned what kind of atmosphere and genetics would create a Hitler, Eichmann (Austrians who were born and raised around Linz) and so many others who would form the nucleous of the atrocities that occured during the 1930’s and 40’s. Interestingly enough it is just this region in and around Linz where you would have found a lot of Nazi sympathizing, and the formation of the early euthanazia sights. Hartheim Castle in Alkoven (where my mother grew up) and Mauthausen are just nearby. This part of Europe has experienced more wars and atrocities than anywhere else except for maybe the Ukranian region. It has affected and traumatized more people’s lives than other regions of Europe and has bred “monsters” such as we have rarely seen. There seems to be an arrogance and a coldness for fellow humans especially among the men in that society. Their attitude towards women is notrocious; in most part they only objectify them as sex objects or to meet their needs in other ways. My father was not capable of love and never showed any kindness unless it was just to make himself look good.
I think that what we have here with this “Josef Fritzl” is someone who was moulded in early youth in war torn Austria, and who’s ideas where shaped by parents who themselves were unhinged by ideologies and desperate times, breding and then “raising” “little Josef Fritzl” with nothing but brutality and the atmosphere of what War and hunger and post War Austria was faced with. He became another damaged individual, as was my father, who also lived a fragmented life, giving the impression of a successful person on his many visits to Austria, and yet despising his wife and son, while living in squalor back here in Canada.
Someone should do a study of “mental illness” across Europe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this region along the Danube would have a very high rating. Having said all this, I hope they lock Fritzl up for the rest of his miserable life, and divide his assets with his remaining family.
I was born in the USA but my father was a WII baby like JF. Thankfully I wasnt raised by my father who suffers from his own demons. He never has a nice thing to say and always puts you down but that is nothing to his father my grandfather. Walter Stocker was his name and he was a complete asshole. He was an authoritarian and a tyrant. “Alles muss im ordinung sein” he would always say which means “everything must be in order”. He would yell at you if your hand touched his wall stating that the oil from your skin would damage the paint or wallpaper. He would inspect your shoes before you were allowed into his car and if they appeared to be dirty you would have to clean them with a brush he handed you. As a kid I remember him making me cry on more than one occasion. At Christmas he would always complain about whatever gift you gave him it did not matter what. My grandmother and him fought all the time and I never uderstood why she stayed with him. I heard that she tried to leave him once and he wouldnt leave her alone. He was a bitch of a human being and when I first saw pictures of JF I thought oh my god that looks like my Austrian grandfather Walter. So I agree Egon there is something amiss in the genes of certain Austrians. My grandfather was from Graz but I believe some of his family came from the area near Linz.
During WWII, Amstetten had a horrific female concentration camp nearby. Unimaginable torture and depravity was inflicted on the female prisoners by the guards. Many of the Amstetten locals worked as guards. Fritzl was 10 years old when it was still running. Of course, the locals said nothing. No one stood up and said this is wrong. Many of the children of the camp guards still live in the town, but it is taboo to mention it. The entire Amstetten society psychology was forever wrecked by its complicity in the running of a German concentration camp. It’s easy to see how a young Fritzl monster was formed.
During WWII, Amstetten had a horrific female concentration camp nearby. Unimaginable torture and depravity was inflicted on the female prisoners by the guards. Many of the Amstetten locals worked as guards. Fritzl was 10 years old when it was still running. Of course, the locals said nothing. No one stood up and said this is wrong. Many of the children of the camp guards still live in the town, but it is taboo to mention it. The entire Amstetten society psychology was forever wrecked by its complicity in the running of a German concentration camp. It’s easy to see how a young Fritzl monster was formed.
Women and children in Mauthausen-Gusen
Although the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex was mostly a labour camp for men, a women’s camp was opened in Mauthausen, in September of 1944, with the first transport of female prisoners from Auschwitz. Eventually, more women and children came to Mauthausen from Ravensbruck, Bergen Belsen, Gross Rosen, and Buchenwald. With them came some female guards. Twenty are known to have served in the Mauthausen camp, and sixty in the whole camp complex. Female guards also staffed the Mauthausen sub-camps at Hirtenberg, Lenzing (the main women’s sub-camp in Austria), and St. Lambrecht. The Chief Overseers at Mauthausen were firstly Margarete Freinberger, and then Jane Bernigau. Of all the female Overseers who served in Mauthausen, almost all of them were recruited between September 1944, and November 1944, from Austrian cities and towns. In early April of 1945, at least 2,500 more female prisoners came from the female sub-camps at Amstetten, St. Lambrecht, Hirtenberg, and the Flossenbürg sub-camp at Freiberg. It is rumoured that Hildegard Lächert also served at Mauthausen.[32]
Common methods of extermination of prisoners, who were either sick, unfit for further labour or as a means of collective responsibility or after escape attempts included:
* Being beaten to death (by the SS and Kapos)
* Icy showers - some 3,000 inmates died of hypothermia - after having being forced to take an icy cold shower - and who were then left outside in cold weather.[43]
* Mass-shootings
* Medical experiments
o Aribert Heim, dubbed Doctor Death by the inmates, was there for seven weeks, which was enough to carry out his experiments[44]
o Another of the Nazi scientists to perform experiments on the inmates was Karl Gross, who purposely infected hundreds of prisoners with cholera and typhus in order to test his experimental vaccines on them. Between February 5, 1942, and mid-April of 1944, more than 1,500 prisoners were killed as a result of his experiments[45]
* Hanging
* Starvation
* Injections of phenol. (A group of 2,000 prisoners who applied to be transferred to the sanatorium were declared mentally sick and were killed by Dr. Ramsauer in the course of the H-13 action)[43]
* Drowning in large barrels of water (Gusen II)[46][47]
* Beating to death or starving to death in bunkers[48]
* Throwing the prisoners on the 380 volt electric barbed wire fence[48]
* Forcing prisoners outside the boundaries of the camp and then shooting them on the pretense (pretence) that they were attempting to escape[49]
I pray for Elizabeth and her chlidrens, This man should be locked up for the rest of his life without any mercy.
God bless you Elizabeth and wish you a peaceful life.
I think it is one of its kind crime in the world, this person should not be treated lightly he need to have bad bad and only punishment for the crime he has committed. I want to pray for Elisabeth and her kids, and I feel very sorry how they have spent there life in underground rooms without any sunlight and were cutoff from the rest of the world. I wish Elisabeth get well soon and spend the rest of life peacefully.
I am completed puzzled as to how this mans wife did not know what was going on in her own house. She should be locked up as well because as far as I am concerned, if my husband had to tell me my daughter ran away, I would search the earth for her and never rest until i found her for the rest of my life not do what she did. I am absolutely positive she knew what was happening and was to scared to do anything about it. This is really shocking and I only hope she feels guilty for the rest of her life, because she is not a mother. She is as guilty as her husband
The victims should wait patiently untill he gets out and then get revenge Micky and Malorie style!
Not being judgemental but I agree with you Marion. Elizabeth’s mother, Rosemary, is complicit or as guilty as her husband. I believe mothers will always have that innate connection with their children - “maternal instinct” or gut feeling. Her indifference towards her missing daughter is incomprehensible and weird.
Remember - Hitler and Eichmann came from Austria and to add insult to injury the Austrians elected Kurt Waldheim as their president (an ex SS man who lied about his past). Nothing would surprise me about Austria any more. People who do not deal with their past should not wonder that monsters reappear again and again in their backyard.
More unbelieveable horror storys that makes you wonder how this could happen.
A very controlling individual who could have hit every new born child Elizabeth had over the head and incinerated it as he did the twin who is reported to have died at birth. But he did not,! was this because they were his offspring and he cared for them ? Or was this ownership and control ?
Who got to go upstairs, and how you would feel if you had not been selected ? but left in the underworld.
On a more practical level what about the day to day needs and disposal of rubbish, I get through loads of toiletries , with a young mother Elizabeth and Kirsten what about thier female requirements did not anyone notice the sanitary wear that a 70 year old would not need.
My thoughts are with Elizabeth and her children , even though they are now free and should be allowed to see the sun and feel the wind and rain on their skin, how do you come to terms with what has been stolen from you? and the fact that you are the product of forced imprisonment and incest by the worlds most current evil .With what agression,control and sexual scenes they have witnessed as the norm how can this be forgotton.
15 years is not enough , he need to live at least another 24 years in a window less cell with daily bullying and fear .
Jane Mermaind
Austria needs to re-introduce the death penalty for child abuse, incest and things like this. Austria is becoming world famous as the capital of horrors. First it gives birth to Adolf Hitler, and now it gives birth to men like these. Something is seriously wrong with the water and air of that country.
Austria can atone for its slack laws, by introducing the death penalty and sentencing this monster man to death through starvation or bury him alive in a pit full of red ants and millipedes to eat.
Terrible , i can not image what was happed for Elisabeth for that time.i pray for her qill be in good health and spirit soon
Please people from Austria: Go and check your dungeons!!!!!!!
It is not fair he is locked up in a nice comfy cell eating Apricot Dumplins.. He should only get stale bread and stagnant water once every day or two..
I think Egon and Herr are correct when they say there is somthing wrong with that specific area. I remember learning in history class how Austria habors many Nazi war criminals and they do not deal with there past and now the Evil from the these past times are OOozing out like Toxic Waste and still creating these Awful Monsters.
Everything he has done to his daughter seems very much like a concentration camp , right down to the throwing of his tiny newborn dead baby into a furnace.. Dont you think the tenants would of noticed the smell of cooking flesh coming up through the heating vents? This man is severly TWISTED. Maybe some of his evil comes from his past ,but others went through the same and did not turn EVIL.
I pray for Elizabeth and her Children God bless them and bring Good out from Evil.
hi,
my name is christina,38, i leave 20 km far away from amstetten,i am also shocked.
but,i am very sad,too, to read all the negative lines about the austrians.
i think, only a primitive person can write such a mess.
looks for a scapegoat for the whole worldmistakes!
look at yourself!
austria also gave birth for wonderful, great people and great things.
there also happens positive things.
you cannot throw all people into one pot!
in every country you will find tyranns and awful persons,murders,terrorists ans lots of dr. jakyll and mr. hides.
they reflect the deep morality of our society !!!!!
look at the tv, look into the newspaper.in your own country.
look at yourself and be a attentiv, sensitiv neighbour.
the same could happen in your neighbourhood, every day…
christina from austria
ALL OF YOU AUSTRIANS HAVE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AGAIN AND SEE FOR YOURSELVES WHAT YOU SEE!
josef fritzl is a modern demon , devil, monster.right now he is living his life in hell on earth.
They must investigate the wife further. There is NO WAY she did not know and being in denial is NO excuse! You cannot have a man who’s supporting a whole family just steps away and not know. Groceries bought, clothes bought. What did she think happened to these items when they disappeared? Was this woman totally clueless? Not for one second do I think she didn’t know. And if the children do well and I hope to God they do, they must pursue the wife’s role in this horrific crime.
I want to add…to me this crime is worse than murder when one thinks about the extent of torture and trauma on the victims. This evil monster and his equally evil wife should be wiped off the face of the earth NOW! I read a murderer only gets 15 years in Austria? What is wrong with your system? Like this case, that fact is beyond belief.
dont blame whole of austria. one man’s crime will not a beautiful civilized nation austria a bad nation. but i will appeal to austrian people to give tremendous pressure to their government and seek maximum torturous punishments for josef fritzl. death penalty is only way out for him. so austrian dont waste time just seek death penalty. this dirty old sick man should be cut into pieces.
first tied his hands and legs with iron rods and chains then put him in dark dungeon fill it with pig’s shit and urine, cut this bastard’s penis, then put chilli powder on it, then release some hungry rats. then open the door after 2 days i am sure those hungry rats will eat him and tear him into pieces.
Christina
Hello I hear what you are saying about Evil is everywhere in the world. It must be hard for you with all of this attention on your country. Keep your chin up and know that YOU are Good and not Evil. It is good people like you that will shine through this Evil crime against humantiy and let the world know that all Austrains are not bad or Evil.
I consider it a honor to be a American citizen in spite of all the Crap that goes on in my own country. We have plenty of sickos in this country but I do not let them blemish the fact that I am a good God fearing American woman and I pray for all that need it.
I send Elizabeth and her children my prayers for well being and happiness. In Jesus name I pray and the world says AMEN.
Christina,
People are in shock at this moment. The ignorant, negative comments of “All Austrians” are just those of a few. Of course horrible things happen all over the world, this is just the most bazarre. The odd thing is that if it were a man who kidnapped a woman and kept her in a dungeon for twentyfour years and fathered 7 children is horrible but, when that man is the victim’s father and is kept in the basement with the wife upstairs, that’s just very difficult to grasp. I pray for Elisabeth and her children and everyone who is affected by this story (that obviously means you, Christina).
I just cringe at the thought of that poor woman giving birth, alone and then dealing with various physical and emotional pain; she has got to be just “out of touch” at this point.
God has his plans for the Monster of a “father” but, as I keep saying… Throw him in jail and let the other inmates rape him to death.
No one seems to be asking a more logical question.
Why didn’t the first lot of children who are now adults in their thirties notice anything.
As anyone knows children will explore their immediate environs and would me more likely to venture where they were banned. Much more so than the mother.
There are hundreds of questions which haven’t been answered yet.
Right now it seems they will just give him more Apricot Dumplings.
Joli, I am with you about the whole giving birth alone. Pregnancy and Labor is hard enough and scary enough as it is, without having to have that bastard of a father delivering the babies to. I am very surprized that only one infant died as a result. I know that her life was miserable but I hope that her children did give her some small happiness.They are likely the reason she has survived all these years..
I wish there was a “Prayers Forum for Elizabeth Fritzl and her family.” I bet it would fill up very quickly. ?
They have seen the sun after so long, I wish that the same sun will ever shine on you and the children. May they will have a sunny life.
My blessing to you Elisabeth and children.
Its just a beginning of a long sunny life..
we love you.
Its not right that this maniac is living the good life in jail..he should be executed..no buts…..no nothing.or even better chop him up..but first he shold be castrated…
Of all the historical cruelties inflicted by Nazi’s it is hard for me to say that this one is not the worst. Like a concentration camp only this one lasting 24 years imprisonment. Cruelty. Neglect Malnutrition Rape. Abuse Completely stifling young human beings. Denying them freedom. Inflicting illness of them. Producing offspring forcibly with your own child to produce of new race?
I only hope that the future of these victims is filled with caretakers that are only capable of kindness. They will need to be taken care of for a long time. I do hope the people around them will not trouble these children with petty problems of day to day life. These children endured an existence where they believed their survival was held on by a thread. I hope that people will force themselves to show more kindness than they are normally capable of. To know that someone in this world can be so cruel, I believe should force ourselves to be kinder so that this type of behavior can never flourish. Everyone is guilty of smaller cruelties. We overlook alot. How did it ever get so bad? Sorry for rambling. I just hope the best for these for blessed souls.
He should burn in hell! No mercy. But the mother rosemarie must have known more. She should be kept away form the Children (and the money) until the whole story is out. These children are too easily influenced by her.
The saddest I have felt in so many years.
One person has remarked that the surviving children including the poor child/mother should know only kindness for the rest of their lives. I couldnt agree more.
I want to say so many things, but the sheer tragedy of the thing silences me.
Urthone, India
im very shocked by this story. i learned about it today and i ve been reading about this issue all day.
what troubles me more is the cultural perspective. ofcourse i agree with christina, not all austria is bad ori evil, these are very absolute words. however, if we see a culture, a society as a living organism, and a system what do all this horrible strories mean for the culture of austria? are these stories symptoms of a societal trauma? i believe so. a trauma that needs to be adreesed, named and be supported.
all these stories have a common characteristic: the something unseen, hidden. this to be is very new because i come from a culture (im greek) where is very difficult for something to stay hidden, on the contrary i feel sometimes that privacy is not respected, an issue that i considered a problem in my country. it is like the other opposite of what is happening in austria, and by this i mean the extreme value privacy has to a point that reaches the horible situations that happened the last 2 years in austria.
i hope that both elisabeth and her children and also austria to get the care that need
Of course I agree with not putting all the Austrian in the same bag, but sorry to said that I don’t think in other countries during 24 years your neighbour won’t said anything if something similar happens.
Its time for Austrians to check and try to find answers to this, I think many neighbours should feal a little responsible for this, as the family and the legal authorities who allowed a animal like this to adopt 3 childer.
I still cannot believe what happened, sadly, the poor child who is in comma will never see the real world.
Please excuse me for addressing this issue a second time:
“At the time of national socialism, the suppression of women was propagated, and authoritarian education was very important.” This stated by another Austrian woman ( Natascha Kampusch)who spent over eight years in another “dungeon”, and escaped a few years ago. The “Medieval” attitude towards women and the “unrestrained sexual psychosis” that lead to child abuse, rape and murder is something that needs to be discussed in high school classrooms as well as in Medical Clinics with a view of educating boys and men especially, how easily deviant thoughts and behavior manifests itself in later life as a full blown mental illness. Whether the issue is Islamic “Female Circumcision”, the burning of Hindu Widows, or objectifying women as “sex objects”, there has always been an assault on those who are least able to defend themselves. It’s probably already quite clear why Joseph Fritzl went on these Thailand trips; he along with thousands go there every year so that they can further exploit young girls; girls who live their life in poverty and drug addiction and fall victim to these sort of perverts. It seems that early warning signs were there, but unfortunately there exists a Policing System that discards criminal files after only a short period of time. What nonsense! Files should be kept for a hundred years! And especially now that we have computers, certain patterns and habits in a person’s life should bring out some “red flags” concerning his probable “criminal activities”.
I’m also puzzled about the circumstances around the design and building of the three small “rooms” in the dungeon: why wasn’t anyone suspicious at the City planning and Permits Dept. as to the purpose of such rooms in the first place. Surely these were built at the outset when the foundation was originally built, in which case builders other than Fritzl must have been involved. There is so much which still needs to be answered. As for Fritzl to be pleading “Insanity” and spending his remaining days in a Psychiatric Unit, I think would cause a complete uproar and further show what a sham the Bureaucracy of Austria’s Judicial System is.
Never mind Mother Teresa. It’s Elizabeth Fritzl who should be canonized.
To have survived at all a horror that is beyond all human comprehension is a miracle in itself. But to have managed to care for and raise 3 children, to whom she even taught to believe in God, as revealed by 5-year-old Felix who asked whether “God was up there,” pointing to the sky, to do all that, and more, in an imprisonment that even now the police officers investigating can’t withstand for more than an hour at time, is a testament to her spirit and soul.
It is so painful to picture such a young child, about to become a woman, finding herself suddenly locked in that horror, all alone for the first 5 years, in one small windowless room, seeing only her torturer, then being left alone, with no books, no one to talk to, nothing to do other than wait for the next rape or beating. And after 5 years, finding yourself pregnant BY YOUR OWN FATHER and the scare of going through childbirth all alone without a doctor, nurse, relative or friend to help. And continuing to be raped and beaten and made pregnant, which only meant that that now the children had to witness the sexual abuse.
Austria owes Elizabeth and her children and the rest of the world a duty to ensure this monster is not allowed to ever become free again. If the punishment for rape is 15 years, then it should be 15 years for every single act of rape throughout the 24 years. Nothing less would be an additional hideous crime perpetrated upon these victims.
I have been a Christian all of my life. I have always know terrible things are in the world. This is by far the most horrific of all.
When I first read this story the day it broke I cried for hours. My prayers will always be from now on with Elizabeth and her children. I pray for a full recovery for her and her children.
And for that Bastard that has done this. God will get him and then Justice will be done. But right now on Earth in this life. He should be dealt with and VERY HARSHLY.. I dont care if it was the NAZI that turned him like this… Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong.. He knew Damn well what he was doing. He even knew what his jail sentance would be long before he ever imprisoned her.
Perhaps they have such lenient laws because of the Nazi? They feel bad and dont want to be so cruel ..However such criminals should not be allowed among society. To say only 15 yrs with parole is a INSULT to the WORLD.
Josef Fritzl represent the spirit of austrian people.
A dark cloud hangs over Austria because of its concentration camps and now because of Joseph Fritzl. It is very hard for a country to change its image but for its own sake it is going to have to. What might help is if authorities were to raze Fritzl’s house to prevent it from becoming a morbid tourist attraction. I understand Fritzl was bankrupt anyway due to millions owed in real estate. Keeping that house standing just serves to locals as a reminder of cruelty still being inflicted on people in that region. Something has to be done.
To me this case seems to transcend the one family. There seem to be layers upon layers of Austrian institutional and societal behaviour that is hard to fathom. It is impossible to understand how Austrian authorities can have allowed someone to adopt and foster 3 babies that mysteriously turn up on his door step. THREE TIMES and the Austrian authorities thought nothing of it. Reportedly, they don’t appear to have carried out DNA tests, don’t seem to report it to the police and didn’t investigate religious sects …very bizarre!
Lastly, I can’t help feeling that Fritzl wouldn’t have stopped at raping just one of daughters … but this is too awful to contemplate.
Sri Lankan.
It is all happened and we can not do anything to this monsterman other than punishing him accordingly.but the whole world should learn a lesson that each and every individual of this universe has a duty towards the mankind, that is to know what is going around us starting from his/her bedroom /home/garden /garage/inside the car neighbouring houses /town etc etc………
our present society feels that knowing about the area around us is non of our duty but such monsters prove us that we are responcible for our neighbourhood.not the police or the court to punish once the bus has gone.
Mr.Ifham
from Saudi Arabia.
CALLING ALL AUSTRIANS!
PLEASE CHECK YOUR DUNGEONS!!! AND PLEASE BEG YOUR GOVERNMENT TO GIVE A PUNISHMENT TO FRITZL THAT WILL REALLY MAKE HIM FEEL SORRY FOR WHAT HE DID. WHY IS HE HAVING SUCH GOOD LIFE IN PRISON? HE SHOULD SUFFER THE WAY HIS VICTIMS SUFFERED.
AND… COME ON LAWYER MAYER OR MEYER, WHATEVER. YEAH, YEAH, YOU’RE A LAWYER TRYING TO DEFEND THAT EVIL, BUT REMEMBER… YOU’RE A FATHER TOO. I DON’T AGREE WITH YOU THAT YOUR EVIL CLIENT IS SUFFERING FROM INSANITY. HOW COULD BE AN INSANE PERSON HAVE SUCH A PLAN TO MAKE A VERY NICELY AND SECRETIVE DUNGEON AND MAKE PLANS ON HOW HE DECIEVED HIS OWN WIFE? SO SAD…YOU’RE A LWYER!! I HOPE YOUR IN THE RIGHT STATE OF YOUR MIND. PLEASE DON’T USE THIS CASE TO GAIN A GOOD NAME IN YOUR COUNTRY. PLEASE…PLEASE…PLAESE!GO HOME AND STARE AT YOUR DAUGHTER IF YOU HAVE ONE.
REMINDING EVERYONE,
IN ONE OF THE NEWS, IT WAS STATED THAT ELIZABETH VENDICATED HER MOTHER, SAYING THAT HER MOM IS INOCCENT AND REALLY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HER ORDEAL. I THINK WE SHOULD NOT GIVE HARSH COMMENTS ON ROSEMARIE AS THIS WILL CREATE ANOTHER SCAR ON ELIZABETH. SURELY, SHE’LL GET HURT HEARING NASTY COMMENTS ABOUT HER DEAR MOM.
AGAIN, AUSTRALIANS….PLEASE GO NOW AND CHECK YOUR DUNGEONS, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW THERE’S SOMETHING THERE THAT WILL SHOCK YOU, TOO..
Egon, my father is a difficult Austrian man as well. He is a Holocaust survivor and I think being in hiding as a teenager, alone, for so many years made him mentally unbalanced. He did see people occasionally, but it left him terribly scarred.. Because of
Hitler, I had to suffer as well and I was born when my parents were in their forties…. I have a terrible relationship with him, because he is not the nicest person in the world. Unfortunately, my mother died, and he only has me my husband and grandchildren left. But he is mean and possessive, because of what he went though and we alll continue to suffer because of his irrational ways of thinking.. So there is something to be said, about growing up around concentration camps..It breaks my heart how some parents could destroy their children’s lives. I also believe Elizabeth’s mother knew of her imprisonment but was too scared to speak up. If this is true, she is just as depraved and guilty as her husband…..
The mother: I can understand that she did NOT know. Sje was manipulated, controlled, emotionally and psychologically abused for all those years. She was taught not to ask any questions. She was in survival mode all those years. Her strength was in staying on order to care for her grand/children. It must me horrifically difficult for her now… I hope her grand/children will accept and love her.
The father: what makes a person into a monster? I was in a childrens home for 6 years, The nuns were great, but one woman was a sadist. Years layter she explained: “I did not know anything else, I was in a childrens home as a child myself…” She did unto us what she was done to… she had not learned a kind and compassionate and gentle way of raising children. She knew not better.
So this father, grew up in the circumstances all you describe of WWII and afterwards… he ad bad examples, bad energy around him…? Has his astrology been researched yet by anyone?
CALLING ALL THE WORLD:
PLEASE CHECK YOUR DUNGEONS. HOW MANY MORE ELISABETH’S ARE OUT THERE???
CALLING ALL THE WORLD:
PLEASE STOP PORNOGRAPHY, PLEASE STOP PEDOPHILES.
CALLING ALL THE WORLD:
PLEASE RAISE YOUR CHILDREN WITH LOVE AND KINDNESS SO THEY HAVE SELFCONFIDENCE
You just have to wait for the trial. You don’t now anything. MAYBE ELISABETH WANTED TO SLEEP WITH HER DADDY, INTENTIONALLY SEDUCED HIM AND NOW HE IS TAKING EVERYTHING UPON HIMSELF IN ORDER TO PROTECT HER.
He is a psychopath. That is a personality disorder, NOT a mental illness. He will be evaluated by psychiatrists, and he surely should not go to a mental institution….because he knew what he was doing, and he knew it was wrong. He had and still has no regret for what he did. He has not shed one tear up to now. He has no feelings, he only cares about his own satisfaction.
I wish for his lawyer to listen to his concience. Surely he must feel the same repulsion we do?
I find that most Germans, whether they are from Austria or Germany, are emotionally cold and hard. Go there for a holiday..they are downright rude with strangers, instead of being friendly and helpful. You are not even allowed to walk on the grass in their parks, everything is left, right, left, right, as though you are suddenly in an army.
Yes, maybe his wife really knew, and maybe she was relieved that he had somebody else to satisfy his urges, even if it was her own daughter. Rember, she knew he was jailed for raping another woman, and she still stayed with him. Who would be able to stay married to a rapist??
I think that Elizabeth is a brave woman to raise her three children and to not commit suicide. She must have had a hope of freedom deep inside.
May the upstairs children be protected, for they will suffer emotionally very much. I hope the school will see to it that they are not teased or rediculed.
Yes, maybe a study should be done about personality disorders in Austria.
Pretzl
You are as sick as the celler fiend. You must also be mentaly deranged as a result of severe abuse at the hand of your father.
He should burn in Hell….
This lady has gone through an unimaginable endurance test of the body the spirit of the heart and of the soul and survived to tell the tale. Whatever his reasoning for carrying out this wicked deed there is absolutely no comprehensible explanation for how a Man could inflict this kind of torture on his own little girl. He knows nothing of mercy and he knows nothing of the fatherly instinct to protect. I don’t believe he can be human. and i do believe there are others out there all over the world. people talk and they know only what they know. tyrany and torture is not exclusive to austria we can find this human disease of the heart flourishing also in America, Africa, Asia, Australia…. the list could go on and on. its not the authorities fault its not the fault of the neighbors or anyone else who “must have seen something” its Josef Fritzls fault alone. it was his actions. the blame lies with him. i havn’t ever in all my life been so shocked at one persons actions towards another this story has haunted me and the sheer sadness i feel for elisabeth and her children is something that will stay with me forever. only the most high can deal accordingly with this type of demon.
This is shocking, wake up Austria, you people look after each other, this will never happened in my country, someone in the neighborhood will call the police.
What is Kristen’s condition now? Why haven’t there been any statements from the six siblings of Elisabeth? Is any action being taken to assure the future welfare of the victims?
Oh dear GOD in heaven please bless Elisabeth & her children. please let the truth be told by josef Sr.. Please let them live a life of peace disneyland & the four seasons hotel suiet life for they deserve sooooo much more!! oh dear god please let kirstin live if she dies with not ever had seeing the light of day i wont ever get over the heartbraek. for this story has broken me down many many times since april 28th ELISABETH FRITZL DAY!! THATS RIGHT….I SAID IT!
The thought of the ghastly imprisonment of that poor woman haunts me. I have just had to stop thinking of it especially at night as it was making me very depressed. I can totally understand robin savanna ga usa. Savanna like me you have to stop thinking of I am sure that Elisabeth would not want that for you but just to be glad she is free at last. That man is an evil monster. But I agree with many posts as to how did his wife not know? As he is so bad I can only think that his wife was totally under his control imagine what it must have been like to have to share his bed for as long as she did. All the truth will eventually come out over the coming months. But have you noticed the news comes out slowly a bit of a time.? As the police that investigated the dungeon had to have counselling it must have been so dreadful that a lot has been surpressed. Dont harbour hatred for this man it will do him no harm but it will cause harm to those who hate and thus he will have won yet another evil victory. I am reminded of some verses from the bible “Vengeance is mine says the Lord - I will repay” also as St Paul said “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God” - “Our God is a consuming fire” and many others.
I am a Chinese.It is real horrible to read the story. Joseph shoule be cracy to do such an unhuman thing which shoule never be excused on any reason. He told us it is his mercy whithout killing his duaghter and all the kids. Such a devil man must imprisoned for the rest of his life.
what happened to the whole soceity, I am sure the whole Austrian people is not to be blamed. We should ask the mother and the neighbour, what happened under your eyes without your notice. My heart is crying for the girl, who is almost of my age, who is imprisoned in the most wonderful age of her life. How should she face the future? Wish her all my best to recovery from the dream.
I am an American/Californian and a rape victim. I was sick for two weeks and watched CNN daily. I never heard ANYTHING about this - only about American Idol. Last week, my sister showed me articles on Elizabeth and her children. I was stunned by the apathy from Americans, not merely by those Austrian neighbors.
How can anyone ignore such devastation and cruelty? Why can’t the American media dedicate at least five minutes a day to this story and that of Natascha Kampusch, the child/now woman held captive for eight years? Why can’t we accept and do something about disgusting evil sexual predators?
After hearing the story, I vomitted and had nightmares of those two nights I was raped. I understand the need for anonymity for Elizabeth and her children. I am also saddened that society has made it so that they need this. Rape victims (primary and secondary victims) deal with their pain in silence. When our lives start falling apart, we can’t tell people, “Oh, I ran into someone today who looked like my rapist.” These triggers hopefully subside over the years after intensive therapy and medication and the support of others.
Elizabeth is truly an inspiration not only rape victims, but us as human beings. She was able to love her children, even decorate their bathroom, while being tortured incessantly. Her ability to find beauty under such circumstances is beyond belief. I am deeply saddened by this tragedy. However, I am hopeful that there are more persons like Elizabeth out there = People who have strength, willpower, and emotional willpower to overcome evil with love.
I have never forgiven my attacker and I never will. Like any victim, I have been forever changed against my volition. I have the right to hold onto my disgust and anger. I can still do this and live a happy healthy life. (If you meet me, you would never have known I was victimized.)
The insanity plea is a slap to all victims. I agree with SoSorry that this man has a personality disorder, not a mental illness. He knew right from wrong. His excuse that this was an uncontrollable impulse is irrational. He could design an elaborate dungeon, force his daughter to build it, “hide” his activities from his wife for twenty four years, but can’t drive himself to the police station and turn himself in? Being evil is not a legal defense. His excuse that he was raised during the Nazi time is equally ridiculous. He knew what it was to enjoy life when he took those holidays/vacations.
I hope those jailed in Austria will make sure JF is in pain and in fear every second of those fifteen years.
I hope Austrians will give Elizabeth and her children a good life and not allow this tragedy to be swept away after a few years. After hearing that ridiculous 15 years, this seems to be the only thing they can offer the family: Keep the memory, and thus them, alive.
I have posted so many comments. I surely want Elisabeth and her children to live healthy, enjoyable lives. May God continue to be with them. Poor Stephan who walks with a stoop, what has that man done to them? Honestly no amount of torture will erase the memory of Elisabeth and the children. His torture should be on world news as today every person and every country feel for Elisabeth and her kids. God surely must be regretting creating humans, what have we reduced to. I want to spit on his face each time I see his picture, pluck his nails out, shove cactus in his arse, torture him slow and publicly. God, how did she deliver all by herself……..I haven’t slept ever since this surfaced. Please tell us that she and the kids are doing fine. I cannot believe the old hag Rosemarie did not know anything about it. Why didn’t the tenants on hearing the cries report? This is what happens in the western old, living to themselves, don’t give a shit to who their neighbours are. I wish the whole world around comes out with a very serious punishment for rapists. Pls also update us if the torture for the old dick has begun, pls do it quickly. Can we also see pictures of her kids.
God Bless them and give them good health.
Austria, you need to reform your laws so that punishment is equal to its crime.
I recently read another story from Austria about a man who repeatedly raped a 4 year
old child and his sentence was a pathetic 10 months in jail. I DON’T UNDERSTAND!?!
It truly turns my stomach. Your punishments are a reflection of how much you value the victims, which seems to be so very little.
15 years in jail for: 24 years of Imprisonment, Rape, Incest and other horror I’m sure we will never know. If this isn’t your wake up call for change then in saddens me to think what message you are sending your countries people. They deserve better.
Something is still hidden.
Who were the parents of Joseph,
what were they doing during his childhood?
What was he doing during the time of war?
something must had happened - that had cut off his mercy
maybe he had to be hidden, or his mother was hiding something?
something must have left a trace in his brain
Does he believe in God?
another question;
how many bodies he had burnt in his furnice?
how many he intended to burn?
Many Austrians and Germans must be wonderfull people,
But many of them were monsters during last war
People in the occupied cuontries were just burnt in the concentration camps
Gentlemen, I have come across your blog “Austria News” recently and found it extremely informative. Is there a way of reading earlier editions of this excellent publication?….
Sincerely, George Simor