This transcript from AM is interesting for its suggestion that misogyny could be systemic in Austria and the ramifications that has. Please note my emphasis, not the transcripts, toward the end of the piece.
ABC RADIO PROGRAM “AM”
Friday, 2 May , 2008 08:03:00
Austrian captor may not have acted alone
Friday, 2 May , 2008 08:03:00
Austrian captor may not have acted alone
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
PETER CAVE: In Austria, there are claims that the 73-year-old man who locked his daughter and their children in a cellar, may not have been acting alone.
A lodger who lived with the family for more than a decade says that he saw another man go downstairs to where the daughter, Elizabeth, was kept with some of the children she had after being raped by her father.
Europe correspondent, Rafael Epstein, reports.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: We now have more of an idea of the life led by the 73-year-old. Josef Fritzl's sister-in-law, Christine, says he used to go into the cellar of his house every morning promptly at nine o'clock. She told a newspaper this was supposedly for him to draw plans for machines, which he sold to firms as a retired engineer.
It seems his wife, Rosemarie, was warned away from the cellar. His sister says Rosemarie wasn't even allowed to take a coffee to him there, and claims Josef Fritzl constantly belittled his wife.
But it seems the 73-year-old may not have been working alone.
But it seems the 73-year-old may not have been working alone.
Alfred Dubanovsky lived with the family for 12 years.
ALFRED DUBANOVSKY (translated): Such a strange guy. None of the lodgers was allowed into the cellar or allowed to take any photographs of the garden area. He said the cellar was his private area. He didn't want anyone there.
Only he alone was allowed to go into the cellar. He went there almost every day. I thought it was a bit strange, but I didn't find it suspicious.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: He told the BBC he once saw someone else go down to the cellar - supposedly a plumber.
ALFRED DUBANOVSKY (translated): He didn't get many visitors. Sometimes relatives or friends would come to the house, but once Fritzl introduced me to a plumber and he was allowed to go down to the cellar.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: And he added a chilling observation about banging noises that he heard downstairs.
ALFRED DUBANOVSKY (translated): Right below my room, kind of banging, bashing, knocking noises. One time I asked Fritzl what it was. He told me it was coming from the gas heating down below.
One of the other lodgers said she saw food being taken down there to the cellar. I didn't see that, but I thought he must have been storing food there.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The question keeps echoing across Europe: why this crime and why in Austria?
Newspapers in Europe point to World War II. Austria, they say, has always avoided examining its role, portraying itself for years as Hitler's first victim.
They didn't have a de-Nazification process like in Germany, they didn't like to confront the uncomfortable.
Its one thing coming from a journalist, quite another when it's echoed by Natascha Kampusch, the girl held for eight years in a cellar in similar circumstances.
NATASHA KAMPUSH (translated): I think this exists world-wide but I think it’s also a ramification of the Second World War. At the time of national socialism, the suppression of women was propagated and authoritarian education was very important.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Others also say that Austria is particularly prone to low level collusion and even corruption between police, judges and politicians at a regional level. Another factor perhaps that explains why the adoptions went ahead, why the 73-year-old’s criminal record was ignored and why Elizabeth's disappearance was never thoroughly investigated.
This is Rafael Epstein for AM.
