Elisabeth and the Children
When Elisabeth Fritzl was 18 years old, her father, Josef Fritzl, imprisoned her in a hideout he had constructed in the basement of the family home. He repeatedly raped her over the course of the next two decades, during which time she gave birth to seven children, one of whom passed away soon after birth.
One thing connected each of Elisabeth’s six living children: they were all born in the gloomy basement cell, away from medical personnel, supplies, and natural light. Despite the fact that their lives began in the same manner, they developed in radically different ways.
Three of Elisabeth Fritzl’s children were still with her in captivity at Ybbsstrasse number 40, a modest home in the Austrian town of Amstetten. Elisabeth’s father and kidnapper took the other three upstairs, where they enjoyed a relatively normal life with music lessons, fresh air, and freedom.
When Elisabeth Fritzl’s traumatic 24 years of imprisonment came to an end in 2008, their lives, as well as their mother’s, were dramatically changed. The siblings from “upstairs” and “downstairs” were then at last reunited. So, where are the kids of Elisabeth Fritzl now?
Elisabeth Fritzl’s life altered irrevocably on August 28, 1984. Then the 18-year-old consented to accompany her father into the cellar so he could put up a door. For 24 long years, she wouldn’t come out.
Elisabeth had reason to be wary of her father by that time. Der Spiegel claims that Josef began abusing her when she was 11 or 12 years old, setting off a cycle that lasted for years.
However, by 1984, it appeared that Elisabeth might finally get away from him. She had set up a potential employment in the Austrian town of Linz after receiving waitress training. Instead, she went with her father into the cellar, where he used ether to render her unconscious and a metal chain to bind her to a bed.
Josef had long since made plans to use his daughter as a sexual slave. He had permission to enlarge his cellar in the late 1970s, according to The Guardian. The future prison for Elisabeth was then painstakingly constructed by the electrical engineer and contained a number of windowless rooms that took up 650 square feet.
For the following 24 years, Josef held his daughter as a prisoner. He raped her roughly 3,000 times after convincing the outside world—as well as Elisabeth’s mother, Rosemarie—that she had joined a religious cult. He also beat her and punished her by turning off the lights. Elisabeth Fritzl then fell pregnant shortly after.
Kerstin was the first child born to Elisabeth Fritzl. She was born on August 30, 1988, nearly exactly four years after Elisabeth’s incarceration, according to the Telegraph.
Elisabeth gave birth to Kerstin alone, in contrast to the majority of Austrian expecting moms. She gave birth on her own, using just a pregnancy book that her father had reluctantly given her as a guide. Although he didn’t check on Kerstin and Elisabeth until ten days after she was born, he also gave her diapers, scissors, and a blanket.
In February 1990, almost a year and a half later, Elisabeth gave birth once more to a boy named Stefan. In August 1992, Lisa, a girl, was born as his third child. However, Josef made the decision to remove Lisa from the basement due to a shortage of space, even if Stefan and Kerstin stayed with their mother.
In May 1993, around nine months after her birth, he put Lisa in a cardboard box outside the Fritzl residence, according to Der Spiegel. He placed a letter that Elisabeth had been made to write inside the box.
“Dear Parents,” the forced letter began, “I am leaving you my little daughter Lisa.” Look after my young girl well. She drank my milk for roughly six and a half months, and now she drinks milk from a bottle. She eats everything else from the spoon and is a wonderful girl”.
Social professionals in the area were persuaded by the letter, and they noted Josef and Rosemarie’s “shock.” They stated, “The Fritzl family is taking loving care of Lisa and wishes to continue caring for her.”
As a result, nobody noticed when Monika, a nine-month-old baby, appeared on the Fritzls’ doorstep in December 1994. Nobody questioned the arrival of Alexander, another one of Elisabeth Fritzl’s children, who was a male, in 1997 either.
No one would be aware that Alexander was a twin until 2008. Michael, his sibling, had passed away a few days after birth. Josef allegedly informed Elisabeth, “What will be, will be,” while Michael gasped for air. Later, he incinerated the infant’s body before scattering his ashes in the backyard garden.
In 2002, a boy named Felix, Elisabeth Fritzl’s last child, was born. Felix was left in the basement this time. Josef later then admitted to the authorities that his wife was unable to care for an additional child.
The children of Elisabeth Fritzl were split into two universes by 2008. Upstairs, three of them led very typical lives. The other three never saw the sky or the sun and lived in a windowless dungeon.
Kerstin Fritzl, the oldest child of Elisabeth Fritzl, has a history of illness. But in April 2008, she began to have excruciating cramps and began to bite her lips so forcefully that they would bleed. On April 19, Josef agreed to Elisabeth’s request to take Kerstin to the hospital.
Elisabeth placed a note in Kerstin’s pocket prior to him escorting her out of the basement. Elisabeth requested that Kerstin be given aspirin and cough treatment in her letter, pleading with the doctors to “please, please help her.” “Kerstin is really terrified of other people. She has never spent time in a hospital.’
The doctors’ suspicions were raised by this, along with the obvious extreme neglect that Kerstin Fritzl had experienced. To save her life, they pleaded with her mother to step forward. And, astonishingly, Josef gave Elisabeth permission to do so. He declared that Elisabeth had made the decision to return home with Stefan and Felix!
But when Elisabeth had the cops all to herself, she struck a deal. She would tell them everything if they guaranteed she wouldn’t ever see her father again. The police agreed, and Elisabeth started a story that had actually started in August 1984, 24 years earlier.
The children of Elisabeth Fritzl would never live the same life again. Her “upstairs” and “downstairs” siblings finally got to meet after being separated since they were infants as doctors cared for Kerstin Fritzl in the hospital. But they had a very long road of rehabilitation ahead of them.
