either, so the mixed blessing of having a child but knowing that child is also going to be a prisoner and that happening over and over again. i just can t imagine how she did not, how elisabeth did not shut down entirely and give up. in total, elisabeth gave birth to seven of her father s children. today, only six are alive. michael, a twin, died soon after birth. his tiny body incinerated by josef fritzl, most likely in the furnace. three others, felix now 5, stefan now 18, and kirsten, 19, were condemned to lead a life in captivity with their mother. but, incredibly, fritzl selected the middle three children for a life of freedom upstairs. alexander, age 12, monika, 14, and lisa, 15. translator: why this man took
today she is a best selling writer of crime novels. when elisabeth got to the hospital and began to work with police and health care professionals to talk, there s no reason for her to trust them. this is a world that betrayed her, in a sense, by giving up, by not looking for her in her own home with her own father. finally, elisabeth admitted that she did have a story to tell but only if she never saw her father again. translator: she was given this assurance and then without a break in a mere two hours she gave an account of the 24 years she spent in the cellar. well, it still sends shivers down my spine. translator: the first detective was presented with a strange picture. he looked at this woman and her physical appearance. i don t want to go into too much detail, but looking at this
he even presented letters from her that he forced her to write. fritzl s careful web of lies worked. no one came looking for elisabeth not her mother, not her friends, not the neighbors, not the police. translator: this is something the police see time and time again and, as we all know, every child leaves the family home at some point. then her 19th birthday arrived. and the austrian police aren t allowed to search for missing persons over the age of 19, because from this age onwards, an austrian citizen can go anywhere in the world they want. in planning elisabeth s disappearance, fritzl was meticulous. he was known to be highly organized, a quality appreciated by those with whom he did business. the fritzl family ran a summer guest house in the mountains and rented land from anton graf. translator: we had a business relationship.
elisabeth a lift at night and for her to leave the baby on the door step at a time when she wouldn t have been seen. fritzl s closest neighbors bought his story, too. translator: people said that it was irresponsible. what a bad mother elisabeth was just to leave the children on the doorstep. frau fritzl already had seven children and now she has to bring up grandchildren, as well. terrible. incredibly, over the 24 years elisabeth was in captivity, there were more than 100 tenants renting rooms in the fritzl house right above elisabeth s prison. none suspected. translator: in hindsight, you can always claim that you heard something, like knocking, but that simply isn t the case. i can t recall ever hearing knocking or anything at all. and if i heard something, what could i have done? it could have been children playing. you don t know. after the first child was abandoned in 1992, social services paid some 20 visits to the house.
fathered, his daughter, elisabeth, and his wife, rosemarie, were reunited in a psychiatric clinic outside amstetten, where they could get the emotional counseling they needed. it was very amazing to watch the family, because they behave like a normal family. there are lots of things which have been reported badly or wrongly. i mean, first, i mean, the children speak normal german. they communicate as anybody does. they walk as anybody does. and also what has been reported about elisabeth, i mean, she s a normal looking woman, very attractive person. if you meet her and if you see her, you know, the most important point right now is that she has the feeling that the kids are happy. they feel comfortable. and that gives her, i would say,