How can Josef fritzl's wife not have known???

Apparently, josef fritzl's wife and other members of the family did not know what was going on for decades.



I find this unbelivable that his wife did not know.



How do you think this could be?



Could she be a passive vulnerable to lies, a passive woman to crimes or involved as women in such crimes are?...



Rosemary West, Myra Hindley, etc.
How can Josef fritzl's wife not have known???
well thats what i thought too. That maybe she did know.



It could be

A. she was too scared to question him as he was apparently quite dictatorial ( is that a word) and frightenened to speak against him

B. She was suspicious and didnt know how to speak to the authorities.

C. They lived on the 2nd floor and was totally unaware of the basement.

D.Psychologically in denial that her husband could do such a thing - continued to play the role of traditional housewife
Reply:Aparantly Josef Fitzl was a man who had authority in the house, very controlling, he was ultimately - the boss.



Perhaps his wife was not in a position to question anything and genuinally didnt realize what was going on.



I know if it was my mum or any other mum, if their 18 year old daughter went missing, with an explaniatory note or not, they would look until the end of the earth until they find the child and seeing as she obviously didnt, shows that Fitzl must have influenced her in some way.



Fitzl probobly had a great deal of control over his wife and children and made the decision for the family to not try and find the daughter.



Lets just hope there is justice. Only this monster knows the answers to all questions.
Reply:Out of all that I have seen in such cases, I have my own version of this whole incest matter:

Josef's wife had been with an other guy as he was a despicable authoritarian. So he was not the real father of Elisabeth and started to abuse her at the early age of 11. When his wife was found disloyal and bearing an illegitimate child she was so much paralyzed by shame and fear that thought better to keep quite and shut her eyes.
Reply:This question brings up more questions, How could he have feed them all these years without his wife asking where all the money is going? She ran an inn by a lake, she had to have some clue to the actual costs of food financially... though Josef was an authoritarian, she should had to suspect something wrong. but then you look at even governments that push their propaganda to the people, and people are willing to accept it, even when the evidence is to the contrary.

Yes I mean the Bush administration.
Reply:Denial is such a captive state to be in. Ask the partners of alcoholics, sex addicts, gamblers. "He's just having a few drinks." "She's only flirting." "He lost a little money at the race tracks."



A close relative of mine continues to deny that her husband is a philanderer. After 54 years of marriage and countless affairs, he is still the same little playboy and she sees him only as a loving and fun guy. People have tried time and again to let her know that he has fathered an illegitimate child and that his mistress is counting on getting a lion's share of his assets when he dies. She refuses to entertain these as possibly true.



So I can understand how Josef Fritzl's family convinced themselves that there was nothing wrong. I'm glad this has come out and I hope it will allow us to examine our own games of denial, and decide if there is anything we can do to ease someone else's suffering.



24 years in a dungeon. Man, what a nightmare.
Reply:totally agree with sitinher; of course she knew, lets face it if your husband disappeared from the house for hours, if food was going missing and 3 kids turned up on the doorstep [even with a note attatched] would you not question it?? im sure we all would, and it is no coincidence that rosemary west and myra hindley swore blind they knew nothing..............and look what those 2 did!



i feel for the children of this monster, but hey he is austrian and they are well known in producing control freek dictators. may he rot in jail ,but this is too good for him.
Reply:Hard to believe she didn't know, what women would not get suspicious of something when her husband puts a lock on the basement door that he and he alone has the password to and she is not allowed to go down there.



And her own daughter that she gave birth to disappears and then her children pop up out of no were, she must be the stupidest woman on the face of the planet or heavily medicated.
Reply:I said the same thing myself, when posted this yesterday, how could he have kept it secret, feed the children, get them clothes, he would have had to have gone to stores, extra food and now it looks like there is another property being looked at, this is one grisly story.
Reply:I cannot believe she did`nt know. Did`nt she notice her husband spending so much time in the basement? I`d think normal people would ask what their husband is doing in thebasement. Then, she brought up these 3 abandoned children left with notes from their mother saying she could`nt cope. It`s my opinion that she is an accesorry to these heinous crimes.
Reply:This Woman is either as thick as two short planks, or she is keeping her mouth shut. In any case she should go with him to Jail, because how could she not know. ? I do not think she can bluff her way out of this hideous crime, with any excuse.
Reply:It's very hard to believe that she didn't know anything at all was up. I think it maybe that she was afraid of her husband and just stuck her head in the sand over his bizarre behaviour in the celler.

Still it doesn't excuse her not doig more.
Reply:I was discussing this with a friend of mine who is originally from Austria. I think the Austrian Ministry of Health should order a brain scan be done on this lady because I suspect her entire cranial cavity is filled with strudel and not brain tissue.
Reply:I asked the very same thing @ work today - the result she must have known or her husband is a fantastic liar and she believed every word he said
Reply:i can't believe she never heard any noises from the cell where her daughter and the kids were being kept, who knows tho its all just too nasty.
Reply:she hardly thought babies were just showing up on the doorstep every so often. She should be executed along with him.
Reply:she have to have known
Reply:She is not innocence.
Reply:Unter ze Thumb Ja Austrien Vomen know Nutting
Reply:I dont believe that. imo she was in it up to her neck and some of the others knew.
Reply:She did know about it....