How about the Fritzl children?

For those of us at the Equator grumbling about the daily menacing heat and glaring sun, life for 18 year old Elisabeth Fritzl took an inhumane route when her father, Josef, had decided to incarcerate her in a dark cellar meant for nuclear shelter under their home back in 1984. Claimed to shield her from the hedonistic outside world where booze and sex mattered to most teenagers then, the primary paternal instinct went animal when the father had begun to rape her almost everyday without hesitation whether night or day. The incestuous act resulted in the birth of 7 children over the torturous 24 years; where four are adopted (one had passed away and burnt in the heater) and raised by the father and his wife, while the other three continue to live in the dark – until recently where Austrian authorities stepped into their home to discover one of the worst domestic crimes of postwar era.

For once, the whole world directed its attention towards the plight this victimised Austrian mother and her three children that lived most of their life in a 60 sqm windowless cellar locked by eight metallic doors with sophisticated remote lock mechanism. This modern day soundproof dungeon was only equipped with a TV, recorder and radio. The case might seemed solved when Josef had confessed his actions after Elisabeth had divulged the crimes of her father under police interrogation. However, we tend to overlook one fact – how are the three siblings going to adjust themselves under the light?

The blue print of the cellar where Elisabeth and her three children lived for 24 years; the space were originally 35 sqm where it was expanded by Josef to 60 sqm (left room) to welcome the arrival of the children. Notice the eight-door security at the right.

It all began when Kirstin, 19, had collapsed that prompted her mother to plead to Josef of the immediate medical attention her daughter needed. Hospital staffs confirmed that the eldest daughter has contracted liver failure, but were wary of the information provided by Josef who engineered the fake disappearance of his daughter who had left the house to embrace a religion cult only to abandon the adopted babies that she bore at the footstep of their house. In need of reliable and deeper information to save the young woman’s life, the hospital launched a nationwide call for Elisabeth to present herself to fill in the gaps and the police reopened her file of missing person. To avoid suspicion, Fritzl had no choice but to agree with her daughter to appear at the hospital, which led to the unravelling of the Fritzl incest case.

Only shy of one year from her eldest sister, Stefan, and 5 year old Felix experienced sunlight and crowd for the first time when they were brought to hospital for examination. Deprived of sunlight throughout their childhood, all three siblings are ghostly pale and highly susceptible to bone diseases due to lack of Vitamin D. Kirstin is reported to be missing of most of her teeth despite reaching adolescent. According to Time, the confined space damaged the siblings’ spatial orientation, while making their eyes much more sensitive to the light. Their muscles are greatly weakened as well. While faced by a myriad of health problems, the greatest obstacle of all proved to be social integration of independent sustainability. Compared to his older siblings who are greatly mentally marred, Felix is much more aggravated by the reality perception and contact of the outside world, and predicted to be much quickly adaptive to the society.

Experts from University of Liverpool foresee that both Kirstin and Stefan might have problems later in life to initiate a romantic relationship that they might see on TV due to the fact the confined room holds no wall that would spare the exposure of promiscuity and perversion at a very young age. Nobody can be certain of the extent of their sexual development. It is unknown either whether did he abuse any of the children during their captivity until recently.

The 21st century biblical Lot

In the previous court hearing, the Captain Hook look-alike Josef Fritzl testified that he is no animal. Justifying his statement, he declared that he only has sex with adult women but never children, reasserting the personal fact that he wished to lock her up for good but the sex was all because of ‘fond of having children with her’. Permeated with Neo-Nazism idealism during the invasion of the socialist thinking envisioned by Hitler in Austria when he was young, Josef stands today as one of the most iconic symbols that debate the possible extremism in human behavioural psychology of one’s upbringing that questions an individual’s rights and capability in drawing the line of right from wrong. He shows us the primitivity of mankind being a young species despite the tremendous rate of globalisation behind the civilised human brain.

Being isolated and brought up like in a separated ecosystem, treating the three Fritzl siblings summons all the knowledge of the latest expansion of medical science. That is why the emergence of these brothers and sister arouses the interest of many scientists and psychologists who wish to study them. It may sound opportunistic at the expense of a traumatic event that will spur an array of emotional discomforts, but doctors and experts have agreed to put the siblings’ rehabilitation the utmost priority. At least for now, the situation of family is improving due to better diet, quality of air and supportive treatments. But few years down the road, we might never know how deep the wound is inflicted on these children because of one man. We can only see for ourselves then the outcome and the future of the Fritzl siblings.