I'm from Austria and I'm still shocked that such a horrible crime happend in the country I live in.
It was on the news for weeks and I want to tell you what I know about the case "Fritzl"
Josef Fritzl grew up without a father. The single parenting of her son was to much for his mother. In his childhood Mr. Fritzl learned how to assert himself against his violent mother.
When he married his wife, Rosemarie Fritzl, she was only 17 years old and didn't have a good school-education so it would have been very hard for her to earn enough money to feed her family alone.
Mr. Fritzl has always been a tyrant. He made his family understand that he was the big boss. He was the one who earned the money and made the decissions. Questions about his decissions and his doing were strictly forbidden. His wife has been very afraid of him.
He was very good in portaying himself as the perfect father and husband in front of others. He fooled a lot of people and also the youth office of Austria.
He made 7 kids with his daugther of which one died. He adopted three of the kids. Everytime he forced his daughter to write an emotional letter in which she had to explain why she decided to give the baby away. After the baby had beed found an employee of the youth office came to make sure that it's o.k. that the child grows up in this family. If he wanted he could be very friendly to people so everything seemed to be perfect and he was allowed to adopt his child.
His daugther, Elisabeth, did everything for her children. She persuaded her father to bring vitamin D pills and books for the children. She educated her children very well. They knew how to read and write.
Mr. Fritzl lived a perfect double life until he allowed Elisabeth to bring their 19 year old daughter to hospital. The doctors have never seen such a pale person and were wondering about her symptoms and the fact that she didn't even have a name. It was the beginning of the end.
Elisabeth and her 6 children stayed in a psychatric hospital for 6 months. They now live in a house under a different last name.
Rosemarie Fritzl lives a lonely life in a small apparment and has an income of only 700 Euro.
Josef Fritzl was charged with unlawful detention, rape, inbreeding and neglection. He was found guilty and is in prison now and he will be there until the end.
All this facts still don't explain to me why things like that can happen.
Last week I heard that it happend again. - in Brazil
A man kept his daugther locked in a hut in the jungle which was only reachable by canue.