Josef Fritzl’s Sacred Sperm?

Winsome draws upon Josef Fritzl’s strict Catholic upbringing as well as Austria’s Nazi past and Hitler’s peculiar Aryan master race theory to explain his obsession with making babies and passing on his ‘superior’ genes.

Having been raised by the church to believe that his sperm was sacred - and the civic leaders of his youth to believe that his Aryan sperm was superior - was Fritzl doing his bit for the Pope and the old Fatherland by fathering so many children?

Was his baby-making bunker at Amstetten designed to be along the lines of Hitler’s Aryan baby-making farms? Did he select Elisabeth because of her Aryan looks (her sisters were brunettes when young)? Did he deliberately use Elisabeth’s womb to provide a new family upstairs for himself and Rosemarie? Did Rosemarie know?

A lot of articles dwell on Austria’s Nazi past to explain not just Joseph Fritzl’s brutal behavior but also that of everyone within his orbit for their ‘turn a blind eye, I know nothing’ mentality, and this may be true but a more important factor for Winsome – who holidayed in Austria some years ago and remarked only on the fastidious cleanliness and tidiness of the people – is that he may have clung to Hitler’s Aryan ideals of creating a master race and was merely doing his bit for the Fatherland by fathering seven more children in his cellar.

“That he chose his daughter Elisabeth to produce his second family is also understandable in this context because she not only carried his superior genes but was red haired rather than a brunette as photos show her older sisters to be when they were younger,” explains Winsome. “This guy was obsessed, it seems, with passing on his genes, and in choosing Elisabeth as his underground baby maker he was ensuring the next batch of babies would be golden Aryan children.”

“I’m blonde myself and speak German reasonably fluently so I really didn’t notice anything strange about Austrians,” says Winsome. “Because I fitted in so well with the local people I suppose I was unable to notice what other visitors have said about Austrians, especially the older generation, being cold towards people with a darker skin.”

“Austria is very much like Switzerland and Bavaria as far as its scenery, culture, language and people are concerned,” says Winsome, “and the only words I can really muster up to say about the place is that it’s nice, orderly and clean. It’s really not remarkable in any way and the only way you would remember it is if something remarkable happened to you there.”

“Nothing remarkable happened to me there and I would never have given the place another thought had it not been for the recent spate of cellar incarcerations, and that may say more about the proliferation of cellars in that country than the people themselves,” says Winsome. “After all, Fred and Rose West of Gloucester used a cellar to incarcerate their victims, including their daughters, but making babies wasn’t their aim as it appears was Fritzl’s.”

“I wracked my brains to remember everything about my holiday in Austria in order to detect something dark and secret in the country, something resembling its Nazi past, and there was nothing,” laughs Winsome, “unless, of course, you think being fastidiously clean and tidy is something to worry about, washing away sins or something like that.”

“The Austrian men, women and children were no different from Swiss or Bavarian men, women and children – but admittedly very different from other Europeans,” says Winsome. “You expect to see patriarchal families, polite and well behaved children, a lot of lederhosen and beer drinking, and that I did.”

“I’m doing my best to make sense of Fritzl’s horrific crime,” says Winsome, “and because Fritzl himself did not believe he was doing wrong, and believed he took good care of his cellar family, you have to believe that this guy was first and foremost a family man and believed in the superiority of his genes.”

“He didn’t get his family values from his Catholic upbringing, did he?” questions Winsome. “Austria’s Nazi past and Hitler’s peculiar master-race theory and Aryan baby-making farms must have had something to do with it – how else can you explain this man’s obsession with fathering children that he’d devise such an elaborate subterfuge to bring them into being?”

“The question I need answered is whether he used Elisabeth’s womb to provide a new family for himself and Rosemarie.”

“Twenty years ago in 1988 Rosemarie Fritzl was 48 and after a lifetime devoted to her seven children – one of whom was missing, presumed having joined a cult - she was probably feeling a little lost, as was Fritzl.”

“That Elisabeth had her first baby, Kerstin in 1989 – after five years of imprisonment – may not be a coincidence.”

“Perhaps Fritzl deliberately planned Elisabeth’s babies for Rosemarie to raise upstairs, but Elisabeth refused to let the first children go and only relented with her third and subsequent babies when she couldn’t care for them properly in the cramped cellar.”

“We are led to believe that Fritzl hated his wife, and she him, but that may not be true at all – or at least it was not true twenty years ago,” says Winsome. “We are also led to believe that Rosemarie was not an accomplice, but maybe the lure of having babies again to fuss over was too much for her to resist.”

“Some women are so crazy for babies that they’d rip open a pregnant woman’s stomach to steal one,” sighs Winsome, “and that Rosemarie took to the role of surrogate mother with such gusto and relish shows that she was not exactly a reluctant grandmother dumped with unwanted kids.”

“Josef and Rosemarie Fritzl appear to have had a very happy life upstairs with their adopted cellar children – dining out with them regularly, but never, apparently, going on holidays together with them,” says Winsome. “One of them was always at home, and this, along with Rosemarie’s statement that she never queried why Fritzl was spending so much time in the cellar and expanding it, strikes me as odd.”

“Like Fred and Rose West, the Fritzl’s were apparently unremarkable to their neighbors – a pretty normal couple – but I think if three babies were left on the West’s doorstep over the years, ostensibly the offspring of a missing daughter, the neighbors and the authorities would have wanted to know where the daughter was and who the father was.”

“In this respect, I think the Fritzl crime is peculiarly Austrian - ‘turn a blind eye, I know nothing’ - a legacy, perhaps of a Nazi past, as is the peculiar procreation of children with superior genes in a baby-making bunker.”

“Bearing in mind that Austria also produced Sigmund Freud,” sighs Winsome, “I do hope that the Fritzl family, the upstairs and the downstairs one, is not further abused in psychological laboratory studies.”

“If the world turns a blind eye to the fate of the family now - preferring to focus attention on other issues - we would be as guilty as we claim the Austrians are of not caring.” Check out these other stories about the Fritzl family:

Rosemarie Fritzl Wasn’t a Fat Housefrau

locked up living fritzl dolls

Elisabeth Fritzl Locked Up For Smoking

Secrets of Elisabeth Fritzl’s Age

Secrets of Josef Fritzl's Age

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Neighbors

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Amazing Survival

torn between two faiths

Honey grew up in what was once called a 'mixed marriage' - her parents were of different faith rather than different race - and although raised in one faith she ended up, like a mixed race child, having a foot in both camps but not quite accepted by either.

"My mother is Catholic and my father is Jewish and I grew up in the Catholic faith," explains Honey, "but when I reached my teens I went through a personal crisis in faith that left me terribly mixed up."

"I was always tormented as a kid because my father was Jewish." says Honey. "The Catholics said that the Jews are agents of Satan, they murdered Jesus and all that stuff, and even though my parents told me to take no notice of these torments I was hurt by their verbal attacks on my lovely, gentle father."

"For all the drilling I received in a Catholic school my teachers left me in total ignorance as far as religious history was concerned," says Honey. "It was only when I did some reading of my own that I realized the truth of a lot of things, such as Jesus himself was a Jew, the early form of Christianity was a Jewish sect and the Catholic faith was based on the expansionist plans of the Roman Empire and had very little to do with Jesus!"

"I could have gone through my whole life -- as I'm sure a lot of Catholics do -- without knowing the true history of my religion," says Honey, "and it was at that time that I felt incredibly drawn towards the quiet faith that my father practiced at his synagogue."

"I became torn between the two faiths and I didn't know which way to go."

"My father told me that it was easier for me to be a Catholic than a Jew," says Honey, "and I suppose he was right. But because I was so disillusioned by what my church had failed to tell me, I ended up solving my crisis of faith by turning away from religion altogether."

"When I was about thirteen I refused to believe that Jesus even existed -- that it was all lies," laughs Honey, "but I've mellowed since and now accept that Jesus was a real person. But I don't believe all the rubbish about virgins births, resurrections and miracles. I believe that Jesus was an opportunist who took advantage of Talmudic prophecy to get himself accepted as the King of the Jews and when that failed his followers formed their own breakaway Jewish sect."

"Similarly, it was over his claim to take as many wives as he wanted that Henry VIII broke with the Catholic church and established the Church of England," laughs Honey, "but it wasn't a new religion any more than the one the followers of Jesus started."

"Until the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in 313, it was acknowledged by most as a Jewish sect. In fact, the early Christians were all Jews and operated in accordance with Talmudic teaching."

"Ultimately, the need to gain more support and money led to unclean, uncircumcised Gentiles being included as followers of Jesus," says Honey, "but the whole issue of including these 'dirty' people remained a thorn in the side of the new sect for many generations. Even today, Catholics practice circumcision without knowing why, other than it promotes cleanliness - but it is the sign of the Covenent with God in the Jewish religion!"

"After persecuting the early Christians for three hundred years, it's ironic that the new state religion of Roman Christianity adopted by the Emperor Constantine ultimately persecuted every other faith it came across, including Judaism from which it sprang."

"What's happening in Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants is a farce," laughs Honey, "and what's happening in the Middle East is a tragedy."

"The traditional Jewish faith has thrived over the centuries despite terrible persecution simply because it's believers were dispersed and generally minded their own business," explains Honey. "When Israel was created in 1948 as a home for the Jews the stage was set for more religious wars."

"Mix religion with power, war and territorial expansion," sighs Honey, "and, like the Roman Christians, the persecuted fast become the persecutors. My father fears that Israel is going to become more expansionist than it is already - claiming huge tracts of land, including Turkey and Cyprus, as ordained in ancient Judaic law - and the Jews will become more hated than they are already."

"I went through terrible spiritual agony over all of the differences and similarities and lies and more lies about religion," says Honey, "and I'm glad, now, that I owe no allegiance to either. I'm free!"

"It's like all things in life," says Honey, "when you can't choose between two things -- boys, movies, food, religion or whatever -- the best action is to leave them both or try something else."

"As far as religion is concerned there is a veritable smorgasbord to choose from," laughs Honey, "but I'm opting for freedom. I've read enough now to be satisfied that there is no god, no heaven and no hell and while my mother is horrified my father is amused."

"He says it is good that I am learning to think for myself, and although I am obviously biased because he is my father I think he's the nicest dad in the world."