This is one of those things that get’s under my skin.  More importantly, it’s the reason why comments are moderated on this site. 

I received a comment on the Josef Fritzl case, from a man, scolding me for only referring to Elisabeth as the parent of the children, and not Josef as well.  Here is the comment in full; you can judge for yourself.

“I have noticed in your coverage of the Josef Fritzl case that when you refer to the children he had with his daughter, you only refer to them as Elisabeth’s children, and not Josef’s as well.  You may not like the means, but he is their faither and should be given that respect.  I would think that you of all people, a woman who rants about sexism all the time, would see just how terribly sexist you are being in trying to exclude him from his children’s lives.  He has said himself that he provided well for both of his families, so he should be given the respect of “father”.”

Simply put, no he should not.  Watch the video documentary on this site.  Read the 50 plus articles on this site.  He was not a father, he was a rapist and a tyrant.  He is not fit to be called “father”.

Elisabeth is their mother.  Elisabeth is the one who will raise them, who will support them in their recovery.  I will never refer to Josef Fritzl as the father of Elisabeth’s children, just as I will not refer to Elisabeth as Josef’s sex slave.  It’s just not right.

He did not take care of his family.  He led a sick and twisted double life.  He was the only person that knew there were 4 people living in the cellar, locked behind 8 doors, one which weighed nearly 700 lbs and required an electronic pass code to open. 

The man is 73 years old.  He is not going to live much longer in the natural order of things.  What if he had simply died in his sleep?  What then?  What would have happened to Elisabeth and her children then?  Would they have ever been discovered?  Or would they have been left to slowly starve to death, deprived of oxygen as well?

No, Josef Fritzl is not fit to be called father.  He is now, and forever will be, a criminal.

-Sable Verity

Thousands of articles have been printed about this case.  Over the past week, much of that coverage has centered upon what the future holds for Elisabeth and her children.  Here are a few examples:

It has been reported in numerous sources that Elisabeth, her mother and her children will move out of Austria to Britain, and will all take on new identities.  I think it’s fair to say that they would have to move somewhere small and remote to basically go unnoticed, because every country in the world knows what’s going on.  I live in America; clearly they would never live here, but if they moved in down the block I promise my neighbors and I would notice.

On the other hand, it has been reported that the 3 Fritzl children that lived above ground will return to school next term- which has also led to speculation that instead of leaving the country, they will actually stay very nearby where Elisabeth and her other three children were imprisoned.

Let’s not forget that Elisabeth has 6 brothers and sisters of her own; that’s a very large family and possible support system for her and her children.

Taking all of those reports into account, ultimately we just don’t know what is going to happen.  My strongest guess is that they stay where they are, that the small town they live in becomes an extended safety barrier to the nosies in the outside world.  I think it is likely that the community will shun reporters and protect this family as they do what they can to obtain some sense of a free life.  If the three children who lived above ground can stay and resume their lives, I’m certain they’d want to.  If the attention is too much for them, then I’m sure they’d want to leave and start anew, then they will move out of Austria, take new names, and live on a nice open countryside with lots of land and room to roam free.  If they leave, they are taking the three children who had “normal” lives away from everything they have ever known; that is a big decision to make.

And we cannot forget about Kerstin Fritzl.  She is in hospital in a fragile state after having just awoke from a month long coma.  Her recovery is going to be long and she is said to not be out of the woods yet.  Certainly she and the family would get excellent medical care wherever they go, but I would think they would continue on the path they are on with her, if they can.

There has also been a lot of speculation here on the Sable Verity in the comments about the culture of Austria and its men.  Some have even gone so far as to bring up Hitler, and some have said that notion is rediculous; that Hitler has nothing to do with what happened to Elisabeth, and more specifically, why Josef Fritzl is the way that he is.

We know Elisabeth is not the first girl in Austria to be taken to a dungeon…she’s certainly not the first in the world.  I don’t know enough of about Austria to weigh in on that piece.  But I do ask myself, what if this had happened in a country whose government and laws overtly discriminate against women, what then?  Elisabeth I am sure would be seeking exile in another country, for certain.  I guess my point is, just because it’s not overt in Austria, doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

So we wait, at this point.  I have to believe that because of all of the media attention, and even how the governemtn authorities in Austria have includined the international media, that there will be a sense of closure and some sort of “resolution” as far as the media and all of us are concerned, but I feel pretty strongly that we’re just not at that point yet, because of all the conflicting information.

We wait, and we continue to hold Elisabeth and her family in our thoughts.

-Sable Verity

From NINEMSN, Austria:  For Video go to http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=571469

Producer: Howard Sacre

You have to shake your head in disbelief - how on earth can these things happen?

And in this particular case, how could he possibly get away with it for so long.

It’s just unthinkable - a father, who kept his daughter locked away in a secret chamber for 24 years.

The poor girl was just 18 when the horror began, and over the years she had seven children.

One died, three were kept prisoner down in the cellar.

And, unbelievably, the others were adopted by the father and lived openly upstairs as his “grandchildren”.

No wonder the family’s story stunned the world. And we must add a warning - what follows contains strong adult themes.

INTRODUCTION PETER HARVEY: You have to shake your head in disbelief. How on earth can these things happen? And in this particular case, how could he possibly get away with it for so long. It’s just unthinkable - a father who kept his daughter locked away in a secret chamber for 24 years. The poor girl was just 18 when the horror began, and over the years she had seven children. One died, three were kept prisoner down in the cellar. And, unbelievably, the others were adopted by the father and lived openly upstairs as his ‘grandchildren’. No wonder the family’s story stunned the world. And I must add a warning - what follows contains strong adult themes.

PETER HARVEY: In the very early hours of the morning, about a month ago, an ambulance drove up this road bringing a seriously ill young woman to the small hospital in Amstetten, a town not too far from Vienna. She looked like a ghost. She was seriously ill. Her only relative, a mysterious grandfather.

PETRA STUIBER: First of all, they didn’t know what to do with her so they said, “We have to find the mother very urgently.”

PETER HARVEY: Locating the mother had become absolutely essential and after a few days a woman named Elizabeth came forward, and slowly revealed details of a story so horrifying it would shock the world. What Elizabeth Fritzl revealed was that her father Josef had kept her locked in a cellar for 24 years and here she gave birth to seven of his children, including the daughter now on life support in hospital.

PETRA STUIBER: I thought, “I cannot believe it, this cannot be true! “This can’t be true.” It is a monstrous case because it is the own father who did this to his daughter. To his own flesh and blood.

PETER HARVEY: And this is where that monstrous crime happened - 40 Ybbestrasse, Amstetten. A place that now ranks with the world’s worst crime scenes. It comes as a real surprise to find this house of horrors is on a very busy, very normal suburban street. Shoppers and neighbours absolutely everywhere and yet for 24 years, no-one suspected the appalling crimes that were going on in there.

PETRA STUIBER: This is a ‘normal’ family and the neighbours were saying, “Oh such a nice man, such a nice woman, “and they were so nice with their grandchildren.” And then you find out something like that.

PETER HARVEY: Austrian journalist and commentator Petra Stuiber has been following the case closely and she is ashamed it could happen in her country.

PETRA STUIBER: I am very angry. I am angry with it because I cannot believe that anyone can do this to a woman. And I think this says a lot about our society because no-one really wanted to go deeper and to look into the case and to ask some questions.

PETER HARVEY: Certainly no-one questioned Josef Fritzl. An electrical engineer, he and his wife Rosmarie were well-respected in this town. In truth, Fritzl was a convicted rapist who had spent time in jail. He was a cunning, meticulous man who planned his crime years in advance.

(TRANSLATION) FRANZ POLZER: We now believe he planned his own personal empire as early as 1978, and to start a relationship with his pretty daughter Elizabeth, in the cellar.

PETER HARVEY: Chief Investigator Franz Polzer is in charge of this case. And with his help we can show you for the first time Fritzl’s hidden hell-hole. The cellar is reached through one, two, three… ..eight locked doors in all. To the final hidden entrance to Elizabeth’s prison. Beyond that, Fritzl had purpose-built a prison with a kitchen, a bathroom a living area and beyond that, two bedrooms. It was cramped, dark and airless.

(TRANSLATION) FRANZ POLZER: I went to see this dungeon, this prison, for myself once. I went through it and I was very glad to be able to leave. The environment in this room where the ceilings were very low - around six-foot at the highest point - the environment was anything but pleasant, because every-day living, personal hygiene and so on, must have kept the level of humidity high.

PETER HARVEY: Josef Fritzl and Rosemarie had seven children - five girls and two boys. Elizabeth was the fourth child, and one day back in 1984 she simply disappeared. Or, at least, that’s what her father led everyone to believe.

PETRA STUIBER: Well, he was very persuasive, and he he convinced everyone that his daughter did run away. Because she was very difficult and even if she was a child she was a difficult child.

PETER HARVEY: For the first four years Elizabeth was alone, except when her father came down and raped her. Over the next 20 years she had seven of his children, all born in the cellar. Michael died soon after birth and was incinerated by Fritzl at the house. Bizarrely, of the six remaining children Three were chosen to live upstairs. The others - Felix, now 5, Stefan 18 and Kerstin 19 - were condemned to life in the dungeon. And it was down here, that Elizabeth tried to give them as normal a life as possible.

DR CHRISTOPH HERBST: They are well-raised, very educated, very polite, so… ..that’s really very amazing.

PETER HARVEY: Dr Christoph Herbst, Elizabeth Fritzl’s lawyer, was stunned by how well she and the children coped. Reading, writing…

DR CHRISTOPH HERBST: Reading, writing, mathematics and these things. She had books, she asked her father to bring her books and some learning materials and then she tried to educate her children. I think they had two or three hours per day and they just had to learn something.

PETER HARVEY: Josef Fritzl has never explained why he chose just three of the children to live upstairs. Each was taken from Elizabeth shortly after birth and placed on the front doorstep. Fritzl told his wife that their runaway daughter had simply dumped them in the dead of night, with a note. Wouldn’t you think that with all of this going on, that Rosemarie, the mother, would start asking questions?

PETRA STUIBER: Maybe she feared about the answers.

PETER HARVEY: Do you think she knew?

PETRA STUIBER: We still do not know what his wife really knew.

PETER HARVEY: She took in three babies - one after another - and accepted them. What do you think?

PETRA STUIBER: She was so suppressed that she didn’t raise questions she didn’t dare to raise questions. She accepted everything, for years and years.

PETER HARVEY: With his upstairs family totally submissive and his secret downstairs family locked away, a super-confident Fritzl went on a string of holidays like this sleazy sex tour of Thailand. Who looked after the family in the basement? Who looked after the prisoners downstairs in the basement? How did he get away with that?

PETRA STUIBER: Nobody looked after them. Because he was he was a very good logistic thinker and he planned everything. He had some rooms where they could store milk and bread and all the things you need, even vegetables. And yes, they were fine for three weeks, that was OK.

PETER HARVEY: There was one thing that Fritzl couldn’t control - when one of the kids in the dungeon got seriously ill, he had to do something. And that brings us back to this hospital where things started to unravel. It was a few weeks ago. The eldest of the cellar kids, 19-year-old Kerstin, became seriously ill and remarkably, Fritzl agreed to call an ambulance. Her first time, ever, outside. Doctors were immediately suspicious. The young girl was as white as a sheet from severe vitamin-D deficiency - a total lack of sunlight. Police were baffled. Who was she? Where was her mother? Back in the basement, Elizabeth finally stood up to her father, demanding to go and see Kerstin and again, remarkably, he agreed. What do you think Elizabeth said to Fritzl? I mean, what do you think she said to convince him?

PETRA STUIBER: I think she said, “You will be guilty of murder,” or something like that. And she must have been outrageous and in a very precarious state of mind…

PETER HARVEY: To see her daughter so sick?

PETRA STUIBER: I think he feared that everything could explode downstairs.

PETER HARVEY: In fact, the entire situation was so explosive that Josef Fritzl knew he had to move very fast to prevent 25 years of lies and deception from blowing up in his face. So, astonishingly, he went down to the dungeon basement and brought up Elizabeth and the two remaining imprisoned children to meet the family upstairs. And the way he sold it? Elizabeth had come home because she was so concerned about her daughter in hospital. At the hospital, police began questioning Elizabeth. At first they suspected her of being an abusive mother. But finally, 24 years of horror came bursting out.

PETRA STUIBER: First of all they didn’t believe her because it was such an amazing story and it was like a really bad thriller, or something like that.

PETER HARVEY: Because she must have said to them, “He has kept me in a dungeon…”

PETRA STUIBER: For 24 years. He has raped me several times, I bore him seven children, one died after birth.

PETER HARVEY: And the young policemen or women who heard this, what do you think they said to themselves?

PETRA STUIBER: I think they needed psychological help themselves. Because you cannot bear something like that. You cannot listen to something like that and not be touched in a very, very deep way.

PETER HARVEY: What motivates a man like this?

DR PAUL BRITTON: Most men who fall into this pattern of offending have, I think, two things, They have a corrupted lust, and a desire, an urge, for possessive control.

PETER HARVEY: Dr Paul Britton, one of Europe’s leading forensic psychologists, believes Fritzl planned the imprisonment of his daughter when she was very young.

DR PAUL BRITTON: Men who offend against their children, their daughters, they don’t begin when she a young woman of 18, they begin when she is a child. They blame her for arousing in them illicit feelings. So what they are able to do - they are able to push away from themselves responsibility and they put it onto someone else But what you really have is a straightforward, predatory lust.

PETER HARVEY: For the survivors of 40 Ybbestrasse the sad irony is that after all those years locked in the cellar they are now locked away in a psychiatric hospital under heavy guard. Elizabeth’s lawyer, Dr Herbst, had just visited when we spoke to him. She is 42, she’s been living in a dungeon since the age of 18, how does she look now?

DR CHRISTOPH HERBST: She looks like a normal woman. She has a very, very white face, absolutely, very pallid face, of course, because she hasn’t had sunshine or something like that but she looks completely normal. Just as you would expect it from someone else who is 42-years-old.

PETER HARVEY: Dr Herbst says it is heart-breaking to see them still confined indoors. The kids can’t wait to get out. They haven’t walked in the rain, they haven’t stood in the sun, they haven’t swum in the river.

DR CHRISTOPH HERBST: The small boy said, “I’ve never experienced rain on my skin “so I would like to experience that.” He didn’t see thunder storms.

PETER HARVEY: They’ve never walked on the grass, and they’ve never smelt flowers?

DR CHRISTOPH HERBST: Never. Never.

PETER HARVEY: From his jail cell Josef Fritzl, at 73 years old, is said to be so deluded that he can’t see what he has done is wrong. It is not known yet whether he will end up in a normal prison or a psychiatric ward. Either way, it is now this monster who is facing the rest of his days locked away. He was an evil man, wasn’t he.

DR PAUL BRITTON: Most people who I’ve come across in these circumstances at one point or another would wish to argue, “I’m not well, I must be mentally ill.” But at the bottom of it, there is a perverse sexual drive and the intention, the need is to bend everyone else as an object - not as a person, but as an object to use in this world and so, they are bad. 

As well as escaping the public fascination with their horrific story, the family wants to ensure that Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years and fathered seven children by her, will be unable to trace them, even from his prison cell.

The push to give the family new identities comes after a series of violent incidents involving journalists breaching security at the hospital where they are being treated.

After a sharp intensification of the security measures at the psychiatric unit following attempts by the international paparazzi to get into the closed ward where the family are kept, lawyers for the Fritzl family and hospital authorities have said that they have effectively been ‘imprisoned again’.

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, five of her six children and her mother Rosemarie, 68, have been receiving treatment at the Amstetten-Mauer hospital since April 27. But the family’s recovery has been jeopardised by increasingly desperate attempts by reporters and photographers to catch a glimpse of the tormented family.

The family’s lawyer Christoph Herbst said that he had been ‘bombarded’ with financial offers from various international media for photographs and interviews with his clients, but rejected the possibility of any kind of public appearance within the next few months.

Mr Herbst also said that the family were now considering assuming new identities in order to avoid the aggressive scrutiny of the international press. He said: “Miss Fritzl and her two children, Stefan and Felix, who had never before seen daylight are recovering remarkably well, but they are virtually imprisoned for the second time after their life long ordeal as they are not allowed to leave the hospital building due to many aggressive reporters and photographers.

“The children would like to go out in the open; they have never experienced rain in their lives nor have they felt fresh air. They’re incredibly curious about everything around them and they would like to touch the trees and the plants in the hospital gardens. But they are unable to even leave the floor they are residing in, and that is an untenable situation.

“We are therefore looking into the possibility of asking the authorities to provide them with new identities, in order for them to be able to avoid pressure from the international media. We will definitely not be giving any interviews.”

Miss Fritzl was held as her father’s personal sex slave in a dungeon beneath his home in the town an Amstetten for more than 24 years and had seven children with him, one of which died soon after birth.

Fritzl, 73, once a respected electrical engineer and property developer, brought three of the children - Lisa, 15, Monika 14 and Alexander, 12 - to live in his upstairs apartment with him and his wife Rosemarie.

The remaining three children - Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five - remained with their mother in the cellar bunker until April 26.

The case came to light when Kerstin fell severely ill and was taken to hospital on April 19. She is currently being kept in an artificial coma but doctors said that her condition was improving and that they would soon initiate the process of waking her up.

From Austria News

Austrias justice minister Maria Berger is against a hard punishment for Josef Fritzl.

“15 years are enough. 20 years the maximum”, she says.

Austrias Interior Minister Günther Platter from the Peoples Party claimed a hard punishment for sex offenders. The Socialdemocratic justice minister disagrees.

The justice minister also criticizes the behaviour of Lower Austrias minister president Erwin Pröll (Peoples Party). “Pröll has obtruded himself to help the victims”, she moans in an interview of Austrias daily newspaper “Kurier”.

http://www.austrianews.co.uk/