Elisabeth Fritzl's Story.

I've just finished reading about Josef Fritzl, the Austrian Nazi supporting sadist who kidnapped his 18 year old daughter, raped her over 3000 times and locked her in a cellar under his home for 24 years, in which time she bore 7 of his incest children.

While the book was written in a sensationalised manner and the facts were apparent before I'd even read the book, they didn't seem to sink in until I gave myself more than a minute to think about it. For 24 long, tedious, repetitive, inhumane, torturous years this woman was bound to a cellar without even a window, fresh air or sunlight. It's easy for us to skim over the facts and not feel the weight of the life she's been forced to waste, while the rest of the world and her family unknowingly carried on with their lives literally above her head.

Elisabeth bore 7 children, and one of them died within 3 days of his birth. Her father burned the child in the furnace and buried his remains. Perhaps while no second of her life in the cellar would have been in any way enjoyable, I think the first 5 years would have been the worst, before she had the company of a child.

The torture, rape, inhumane treatment of his cellar family, malnutrition, physical and verbal abuse and barbaric act of absolute sadistic control stretches to levels as evil as the Holocaust and more primitive eras. To think this woman, and her 3 remaining children in the cellar (the other 3 were released earlier and Fritzl forged a lie to his life his daughter had left them there to be raised by his wife) was only released from her cellar 3 years ago is appalling.

Other bizarre tales of abduction, abuse and sexual deviation have emerged from Austria. It's a chilling thought to consider we may be faced with another news headline that will grip the world and penetrate our perception of evil to a even greater level we'd never even anticipated.

I read that every human is capable of murder, torture and any other evil acts, but it's social convention, rational and logical thinking that prevent the majority of people from ever committing such terrible crimes.

When it comes to blaming previous mistreatment and abuse on you as a justifying reason for your retaliation, I can only agree to a certain extent. We may not differentiate between right and wrong having been amongst an environment of abuse that you have become accustomed to, but as an adult who is fully aware of the consequences of their actions every time you think or commit a crime, you are leaving your human conscience behind.

Fritzl explains he suffered from abuse from his stern mother who beat him and was abandoned by his alcoholic father, but his Oedipus fixations that stemmed from his childhood had no place to be manifested into his adult rituals, fantasies and control over his cultivated and secretive cellar family.

Perhaps this is an example of sadistic obsession at its finest; perhaps it's simply a story too horrifying to ever forget, but I hope that all victims of abuse in any way, and in any severity have been released from their cellars of control and repulsion, and are able to close the door on that past life they never should have lived.