Surviving 24 years of torture and captivity: The shocking story of Elisabeth Fritzl and her six children
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VIENNA, AUSTRIA: In a harrowing tale of captivity and abuse, Elisabeth Fritzl, then 18 years old, was subjected to years of imprisonment, rape, and torture at the hands of her own father Josef. It wasn't until 24 years later that she finally managed to secure her freedom from the basement dungeon where she had been held captive for so long. Apparently, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children, however, one of them died as an infant. Out of six surviving children, three lived with their mother in a dank basement cell, without any doctors, medicine, or fresh air, and others lived with Josef and his wife upstairs.
As per reports, the first child of Elisabeth was Kerstin, a girl, born exactly four years after she was imprisoned on August 28, 1984. With nothing but a pregnancy guidebook to help her, she gave birth alone inside the dungeon. Josef Fritzl provided her with scissors, a blanket, and diapers.
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Almost after a year and a half, the second child, Stefan, a boy, was born in February 1990. The third child was also a girl named Lisa, who was born in August 1992. She was taken out of the basement by Josef due to lack of space and forced her mother to write a letter. It read, “Dear parents, I am leaving you my little daughter Lisa. Take good care of my little girl… I breastfed her for about 6 1/2 months, and now she drinks her milk from the bottle. She is a good girl, and she eats everything else from the spoon.”
'What will be, will be'
The local social workers didn’t have any reason to doubt the letter and wrote back, “The Fritzl family is taking loving care of Lisa and wishes to continue caring for her.” Another child arrived at their doorstep, this time nine-month-old Monika in December 1994, followed by Alexander in 1997. It was only known in 2008, that Alexander was one of the twin brothers. He had told Elisabeth that he had difficulty in breathing, “What will be, will be.” After the boy died, he burnt his body in an incinerator and scattered his ashes in the family garden. Elisabeth’s last child, Felix, was born in 2002, but he didn’t take him upstairs. He later told the police that it was not feasible for his wife Rosemarie to take care of so many children, according to ATI.
'Please, please help her'
Elisabeth’s story saw the light when her eldest child, Kerstin got severely ill, and Josef agreed to take her to the hospital on April 19. She managed to slip a note for doctors, “Please, please help her, Kerstin is terrified of other people. She was never in a hospital.” The doctor asked for the mother’s help and Josef allowed Elisabeth to come out. He announced to the family that she has decided to come back along with Stefan and Felix. When she got an opportunity to be alone with the Police, she told her entire story, with the promise from the cops that she never had to see her father again.
