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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not believe Hans Fritzel's wife could not 'know' that her husband was imprisoning a whole family in the bloody cellar??

142 replies

mimimilk · 20/03/2009 20:52

Sorry, I am willing to stand corrected on this and do not claim to have in depth knowledge of the case, but FFS, he kept a whole family of human beings locked in a cellar for over 20 years, and his wife and other kids really had no idea at all?? I find it beyond belief.

OP posts:

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 21:16

I can imagine her wondering what he was up to in the cellar and thinking maybe it was something not very pleasant (watching porn or something) but not daring to wonder beyond that. I don't imagine it would occur to her that that was where Elisabeth was - given that she'd run away before it made sense to believe she'd done that again.
Finding the babies on the doorstep is more of a stretch.

southeastastra · 20/03/2009 21:17

i read it foxy, you're right i bet

ellingwoman · 20/03/2009 21:19

What I remember from earlier reports was him saying that there was a time-lock on the door and it would automatically open after two weeks if he hadn't visited in that time.

Also that he had told his wife it was his study or something like that and she wasn't to go down there. The width of the walls would have prevented any sound escaping. Presumably she had no idea of his salary so wouldn't know how much he spent on extra food etc. I agree it's weird that no-one ever thought that he was taking a lot of stuff down there. Not just bags of food but clothes, toys etc. Do you think the local supermarket ever thought that he was buying a heck of a lot of stuff for his above-ground family? What about all the nappies and baby things? Utterly bizarre and so tragic. Apparently the press won't leave Elizabeth alone. Bastards.

foxytocin · 20/03/2009 21:19

thanks SEA.

go to front of the class

Original poster

mimimilk · 20/03/2009 21:19

Foxy I was not aware of that, the cellar being a distrance from the home. that would make it slightly more 'possible'. But still, I just cannot underatnd how she could have made sense of his 'absences' ie there at home one minute gone the next sort of thing whilst he in the cellar. Also, like others have said, what about the food bill, clothes and other consumerables having to be purchased and 'smuggled down'. And surely to god she must have picked up on a change in his demeanor at certain times.

OP posts:

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 21:21

I heard he went to supermarkets in different areas where no-one knew him.

Jajas · 20/03/2009 21:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

foxytocin · 20/03/2009 21:23

i doubt the family had much clothes and food would have been no more than subsistence. but i see what you are saying. after all, they had to toilet too and the plumbimg...

nancy75 · 20/03/2009 21:26

its easy to say why didn't she see this or that when we know the story -before the truth came out why would anybody think that their husband had done this? if the daughter had run away before then saying she had done it again is believable. why would she be watching what shopping he bought - if she had no idea what he was doing its not the sort of thing you look for . its so easy with hindsight to say she must have noticed this or that but what he did is so far out of the scope of normal you just wouldn't suspect it could be going on.

CoteDAzur · 20/03/2009 21:29

If DD disappeared, I wouldn't stop searching for her, ever.

I agree with OP. It is very odd that a woman wouldn't realize that her husband is disappearing downstairs, buying huge amounts of extra food, etc.

sweetgrapes · 20/03/2009 21:30

They were supposed to have been left at the door step by their mum (the daughter) who had supposedly run away and joined a cult.

I think it's possible either ways.
As foxy says the cellar was away from the house and wasn't audible.

Quattrocento · 20/03/2009 21:35

I agree with the OP and with Cote. I flatly refuse to believe in a mother blithely accepting her daughter had run off to join a cult without doing some serious searching.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 21:37

He forced her to write a letter saying she had joined a cult. So she had a letter in Elisabeth's handwriting.
She might have also thought Elisabeth was better off away from home and out of Fritzl's hands

sweetgrapes · 20/03/2009 21:49

The cellar consisted of 5 rooms and was his workshop and office. They were all forbidden from entering the cellar.Then the dungeon was a hidden entrance from the last room in the cellar.
So the disappearing downstairs wouldn't have been commented on.

But the clothes, food and construction work (he enlarged the dungeon as the family grew ) would be more difficlut to hide.

dittany · 20/03/2009 21:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

winnithepoor · 20/03/2009 22:01

God Elisabeth is brave. I am in awe, I really am. At some point she must have had the means to end her suffering but she chose not to for her children even though all their lives were precarious. And facing him in court too. Amazing woman.

HerBeatitudeLittleBella · 20/03/2009 22:03

I presume he would have explained his absences as "I'm going to my cellar, to work, I may sleep there, don't disturb me"

She wouldn't have questioned the finances because she would presumably have been kept in ignorance of the finances. I know a woman who has no idea what her mortgage and bills cost, because her horrible husband pays it all and doesn't tell her. From that generation, it would have been even more normal to use financial control as a way of life.

Wilkiepedia · 20/03/2009 22:03

Why is this thread distasteful? Possibly in wrong topic but not distasteful??

I had same conversation with my mum. I hadn't realised that as per Foxy's post it was some metres from the house. Really odd. I think it possibly was denial?

My grandma is german and through the war said that they heard rumours about what was happening in the concentration camps but chose to ignore them....power of denial an exceptionally potent thing.

CoteDAzur · 20/03/2009 22:04

So you hear your DD joins a cult and you don't ever try to find her? For over 20 years???

sweetgrapes · 20/03/2009 22:05

and if you did think this husband whom you feared so much, was up to no good, the mind wouldn't jump so far would it?

Mostly people assume their husbands are seeing other women. This isn't really very high on the list of probable things that anyone would think their not-so-d-h's were up to.

nancy75 · 20/03/2009 22:06

cote i agree, if it was my dd i'd be going nuts, but would the first place you looked be your own basement?

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 22:09

Do we know she didn't try to find her? I haven't heard that she did, but then not much has been said in the press about her.

supersalstrawberry · 20/03/2009 22:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sweetgrapes · 20/03/2009 22:13

She might have tried to find her everywhere. Looked in all the places she could think of. Not likely she was going to find her, was it?

Quattrocento · 20/03/2009 22:14

I think she lives alone now in a council flat. I understand from the Times which is exhibiting a tabloid-level of interest in this case that there is no contact between daughter and mother

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