A recent story of horror has broke out Amstetten, Austria in which a 73-year-old man has admitted, after 24 years of secrecy, that he continually raped his own daughter. Josef Fritzl, the perpetrator, sexually harrased his daughter, Elisabeth, 42, starting at the young age of eleven and continued this cruel torture, until Monday when his second life was revealed and he openly admitted to the acts.
During nearly a quarter of century of violence, Elisabeth also gave birth to seven children all fathered by Josef, as well. Not only was this grotesque story the only secret, but Fritzl kept Elisabeth and three of their children locked in and underground cellar beneath his house and never allowed them to see the light of day.
Rosemarie, Fritzl's wife, and his other six children with her, or other friends and family did not of the horrors this well-liked, engineer was capable of. The whole town was had suspected that Elisabeth had run away at the age of eighteen, coming back unseen to leave three of her children to be taken care of by Josef and Rosemarie their supposed grandparents. Fritzl had even forged a note from Elisabeth explaining why she had to leave. This is when he drugged her and left her locked up, soon to be with the other three children; the seventh had died and the body was exposed of.
Fritzl was finally found out when Kerstin, the oldest daughter needed to be rushed to the hospital for medical treatment and family health history was needed and soon exposed.
Sadly, this is the second story of its kind to happen in Austria in the past two years. Natascha Kampusch was another young girl who was held captive for eight years, only to be found and released in 2006. The country as a whole seems to be shaken badly and wonders where it went wrong, and why such horrible acts seem to be taking place in their homeland.
Being an advocator of Domestic Violence Awareness, this story truly strikes a chord. Just this past Thursday, I participated in the Take Back the Night March, here on campus, in which I proposed awareness about actions similar to this case. I was surrounded by women who have been through similiar instances. I was appalled when they openly shared their stories and confused at how such acts could occur, especially and most commonly by relatives and friends. This story is another instance to add to the long list, and I only hope that the world becomes more and more aware of these violent acts and pushes to stop such injustices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW2tYiF5KyM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/world/europe/29austria.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1735610,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-world
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/28/austria.cellar/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto
By: Lauren Ricca
No comments:
Post a Comment