Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Felix: ‘I like driving in the car, playing ball, swimming, playing with children, friendship and running’

Daily Mail:

The first words of five-year-old boy released from Austrian incest dungeon

A wish-list scrawled in a child’s hand yesterday revealed the slow steps towards recovery being made by the freed Austrian dungeon victims.
Felix Fritzl, five, wrote that he dreams of sleigh rides, playing with other children and running in the meadows.

For now, his dreams must remain just that as he, his mother and siblings adjust to normality in a clinic with limited access to the outside world.

But their delight at being free was revealed in the touching canvas they have created with messages of thanks for the support they have received from their home town of Amstetten.

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, and her sons Stefan, 18, and Felix created the 8ft x 5ft poster with the help of their newly-discovered brothers and sisters Lisa, 16, Monika, 14 and 12-year- old Alexander.

Until three weeks ago, the two sets of siblings were unaware of each other’s existence as sadistic Josef Fritzl kept Stefan and Felix in a windowless cellar.

It was the same cellar where he held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years and subjected her to repeated rapes from which her children were born.

Another daughter, Kerstin - who is in a coma in hospital - was also kept there.

Apart from 19-year-old Kerstin, all of Elisabeth’s children contributed to creating the placard, which was put up in the town square, where crowds gathered to see it yesterday.

It features their handprints, inside which are their emotional, individual messages containing their wishes for the future.

A heart shape marks their sister Kerstin, whose admission to hospital on April 19 sparked the unravelling of 73-year-old Fritzl’s secret world. In another corner, a rainbow is drawn symbolising hope.

One of the children has also sketched a red flower.

Elisabeth and grandmother Rosemarie, 68, have added their words and handprints.

Monster: Josef Fritzl

The main message which encircles the handprints reads: “We, the whole family, would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your sympathy for our fate.

Touching: The Fritzl incest family tell of their joy at being free as well as praying for ill Kerstin

Message: The family’s individual messages displayed on poster

“Your compassion is really helping us get through this difficult time and shows us that there are good people out there who care for us.

“We hope that the time will soon come when we can find our way back to a normal life.”

Stefan, Lisa, Monika, Alexander, and Felix have all been getting to know each other and receiving therapy to help them make sense of their ordeal.

And Lisa, Monika and Alexander have been rebuilding their relationship with the mother they thought abandoned them as babies on Josef and his wife Rosemarie’s doorstep.

Elisabeth was kidnapped by the retired electrical engineer when she was 18. He told his wife she had run off to join a cult. In fact, she was trapped downstairs.

The family’s lawyer, Christoph Herbst, said: “The initiative for the public address in a form of a poster came from the family themselves. It is their wish to thank the community for the support.”