Secrets in the Cellar: A True Story of the Austrian Incest Case that Shocked the World

The author intrigued me enough with the sample that I purchased the remaining book on Kindle. I’m thankful there wasn’t too much graphic detail because I was traumatized after reading ‘The First Run’ chapter from Jaycee Dugard’s book, and I think we all know any man who was so selfish and demon-possessed to lock his daughter and grandchildren up for 24 yrs is not a compassionate person. In other words - he didn’t take it easy on her. Truth is everywhere about the evils in this world and still many wonder…..hmmm….Well, anyway, for the most part is was very well written with only a few contradictions and some repeated info. The most disturbing I read is how easy Fritzl has it in his Austrian mansion - yes, I’m being sarcastic for a reason. The inmates can be counted on for more directly-channeled passionate hatred for such an animal as Fritzl, who really belongs in a mud pit with a wild boar as a cell mate. He’s able to eat nutritiously, move around freely with a tall ceiling, have clean sheets and bedding, and change his name because his feelings are being hurt from being recognized. Boo hoo. How did society get to a time where taxes are paid to baby such a pig? Really! Well, it’s a good thing that he answers to a higher authority, because in the name of justice this planet has fallen short.

I am ashamed of my morbid fascination with kidnapping stories. It's such a horrible thing to happen to anyone, and for the media to bombard these shell-shocked young ladies who desperately need their privacy is still more horrible. So after completing this book, I wondered to myself why I was so enthralled by these stories that would really be best kept private.The answer I came up with is the crime of kidnapping a girl or young woman, then locking her up, beating her, and raping her for years is a uniquely horrible crime. Most malicious crimes are over in a matter of minutes, and most crimes that extend over long periods of times, such a drug use, money laundering, etc., don't have nearly as direct of a victim of the crimes. This crime is uniquely horrible in that the victim must develop a long-term change in mindset as a coping mechanism.Being kidnapped, hidden from society, beaten, and raped is the most horrible fate I can imagine for myself, and I have found that when it comes to situations you are fearful of, the best way to prepare yourself is to understand the thing you're afraid of as best you can. Reading the thoughts of women who have been kidnapped is like my field guide for how to mentally survive horrible situations.In that sense, this book was not what I was looking for. I knew this book was not written by the victim of this kidnapping case, but until I read it, I didn't realize how much that would alter the re-telling of events. I have read books by Jaycee Dugard and Natascha Kampusch, and in those cases, the most fascinating thing was seeing how they coped with forms of torture such as starvation, being plunged into darkness, handcuffed to bedposts, and violent rape. By not getting an opportunity to read how Elisabeth Fritzl viewed her situation or how she coped with it, I was missing the most essential part of the story.Still worse, this book felt like a horrible invasion of privacy in a way that the other books on kidnapping I had read did not. In the books written by the victims, the victim was able to choose what information was provided to the readers and what information remained concealed and private. Here, I was reading what the media and interview subjects were able to reveal despite Elisabeth and her kids' best efforts to abstain from attracting media attention and interest. I felt a little dirty for continuing to read.However, I am not proud to say this, but I finished this entire book in about 28 hours. I don't recall having ever read a book in a single sitting, and I tend to take my time with the books I read. I don't remember the last time I zipped through a book this fast. These events were so astonishing, so uniquely evil and horrible, that I was absolutely fascinated. For that reason, I think this book deserves four stars.I had another book on my to read list about a kidnapping which was not written by the author, and I may take it off my list after reading this. As fascinating as the book was, it left me with a feeling of shame for paying the author of a book who so shamelessly violated this woman's privacy, and I don't wish to feel this way again.

In Secrets in the Cellar author John Glatt tells the horrifying story of Josef Fritzl an Austrian engineer, husband and father who tricked his daughter Elisabeth into becoming a prisoner in a cellar turned dungeon that was situated right below his own house. Fritzl would habitually rape and physically abuse his own daughter for the next twenty-four years as well as fathering children with her. Some of these children who he considered weaklings and an annoyance he took from his daughter and took them upstairs where they would be raised by his wife Rosemarie who thought that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult and was abandoning her children on her parents doorstep for them to raise. This was far from the truth of course and only later would Rosemarie learn the true horror of what her husband of fifty plus years had done to his daughter and their family as a whole.The book chronicles Fritzl's abusive childhood at the hands of his Mother in a Nazi controlled Austria. The reader sees in detail how Fritzl went throughout his life from exhibitionist, to rapist, and finally the horrific things that he did to his daughter Elisabeth and the children he had with her. It was shocking to me the detail that Fritzl put into building his daughter's prison in the cellar; it took him six years to plan it all out and he seemed to start work on it after the first time he raped Elisabeth when she was only eleven. That was one of the things that really disturbed me because he was willing to do that to his own child. Being a mother myself I cannot fathom how a parent could do that to their child; and even after he was caught and in prison he still referred to his daughter Elisabeth as his 'second wife' and did not seem to think he had done anything wrong and felt no remorse for the atrocities he had committed.The book is very well written; the only reason it was hard to read was because of the content you were reading about which is so outside the realms of what a normal human being could even think about perpetrating and this man seemed to do it with no problem; its really disturbing to think that people like this are in the world and probably walk by us everyday without our knowledge. The fact that he was able to keep Elisabeth and three of her children as prisoners for two plus decades without getting caught is very scary to me. That he could pass himself off as a good father, husband, and provider just chills me to the bone.The book was easy to read and although I don't read a lot of books in this genre I perceived this book to be well put together and thoroughly researched. It was not just dry facts being listed for the reader it had a rhythm and pace to it that makes me respect the author and his writing ability. If you enjoy true crime novels or are a fan of books in this genre then this is a book you should pick up. It really shows a side of the human psyche that is disturbing to realize that someone living in normal society can be that narcissistic, perverted, and just plain EVIL.I know this is a story that I won't be getting out of my head for a while in the foreseeable future.

この戦慄の近親相姦監禁事件については事件発覚時に報道されたきりで（日本では海外の事件はいつだってそうだけど）詳しいことはこの本で初めて知ることができた。収監された拘置所で収容者から”Hey ,Satan,Come Out 　and Play!"とやじられる場面があるが、まさにサタン悪魔の所業。英文は読みやすいので、オススメ。

I had super high hopes for this book. The entire case completely fascinated and disturbed me at the same time. So I bought the book and settled in for a good read. 3 months later after picking up the book at different times and reading more I realised that the book for me just lacked something I had loved in other true crime stories....it lacked the sense of tension and true horror that should have been there.The book goes into a lot of detail, if you love that in a book you might well enjoy this. I found some of it was irrelevant to the telling and lost me as a reader somewhat along the way. Whilst really keen to know this story and the awful case that it was, I have to admit I struggled to want to keep picking this one back up again.I am keen to see if there are other books written about this heinous case that I may try in the future. I see mixed reviews of this one and I think some will really love it but it just didn't really do it for me. 3 stars.

Disturbing but fascinating read and overview of what really happened.

great

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