Pictured: The lucky Fritzl daughters allowed to go on holiday while sex slave Elisabeth was forced to stay at home with monstrous father
Last updated at 10:20 06 May 2008
These new pictures show the dramatically different lifestyle of Elisabeth Fritzl's older sisters, who enjoyed holidays in the sun while their sibling suffered at home with their monstrous father Josef.
Years before Elisabeth was imprisoned in the basement dungeon of the family home in Amstetten, Austria, her mother Rosemarie took her teenage siblings Rosemarie Jnr and Ulrike on a sunfilled vacation in Italy in the mid-1970s.
While her mother and sisters sunbathed and enjoyed boat trips in the Mediterranean, Elisabeth - who was aged around 10 at the time of the vacation - was stuck at home with father Josef.
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Charmed life: Elisabeth's older sisters Rosemarie and Ulrike enjoy a holiday in Italy with their mother in the 1970s, while their sister remains at home with abusive father Josef
Wearing the latest fashions at the time and getting a tan, Rosemarie Jnr and Ulrike appeared to be just regular teenagers.
The images of the sisters enjoying normal teenage activities like shopping and sunbathing are in stark contrast to Elisabeth's abusive upbringing.
Elisabeth told police she was abused from around the age of 11 - shortly after the holiday photos were taken - before she was imprisoned at age 18 by her father.
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Different lives: Elisabeth's older sisters were dressed fashionably and enjoying holidays in the Med, while their little sister was experiencing a very different life
Chilling out: Elisabeth's 2nd oldest sister Ulrike and mother Rosemarie relax under the Italian sun
An unnamed friend, who joined Josef's wife and daughters on the Italian holiday, provided the photos, saying Elisabeth 'was not allowed' on vacation.
The friend said: "I can't bear to see them (the photos) any more - while we were enjoying ourselves - he could have been at home putting Elisabeth through who knows what ordeal."
Meanwhile, Paul Hoera, a longtime family friend of the Fritzls, told German newspaper Bild: "My three children always played with his children, although I remember that Elisabeth as a child was very withdrawn and shy.
"I got the impression that he (Josef) did not like her very much, he did not treat her as well as other children. He used to beat her a lot more than them as well. She used to get a slap for every small thing.
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Relaxed: Rosemarie Jnr (standing) and Ulrike (sitting) happily chat in the sun
Sunworshipping: Ulrike enjoys the sun on her skin - something her sister would later be deprived of for 24 years
"When I heard that she had vanished he told me she had joined a sect.
"I feel sick when I think of her under the house every time we were sitting in the garden laughing and joking."
As well as Rosemarie Jnr and Ulrike, Elisabeth had two other sisters Gabriele and Doris and two brothers Josef Jnr and Harald.
Fritzl's lawyer, meanwhile, indicated he is preparing an insanity defence.
In an interview broadcast yesterday, lawyer Rudolf Mayer said he believes Fritzl has a serious mental disorder and that anyone with that kind of psychological illness "didn't choose" to do what police allege he did.
Mayer said experts will have to determine Fritzl's mental state and decide whether the suspect can be considered certifiably insane.
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Elisabeth Fritzl as a child (left) and her father and captor Josef Fritzl, as he looked when he first imprisoned her
If that is the case, and Fritzl is convicted, he would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison, he said.
Investigators have said Fritzl confessed last week that he held his daughter captive in a windowless cell, fathered her seven children, and tossed the body of one who died in infancy into a furnace.
Authorities first began to unravel the complex story on 19 April, when a 19-year-old girl who Fritzl fathered with his daughter, Elisabeth, was admitted to a hospital suffering from an unidentified infection.
Doctors, unable to find any medical records for Kerstin, appealed on television for her mother to come forward. Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth - now 42 - to the hospital on 26 April and opened up to police.
The 19-year-old remained hospitalised in critical but stable condition, although clinic spokesman Klaus Schwertner said her situation "has stabilised somewhat in recent days".
Officials said Kerstin is still being kept in an artificial coma to help her breathe.
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