Natascha Kampusch Describes Kidnap Ordeal on Her First Interview

Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian held captive in a windowless cellar near Vienna for eight years before she escaped two weeks ago, in her first interview since she escaped from the psychopath did not answer all the questions, let alone dispel all the mysteries. But she went public with a revealing, often harrowing account of her ordeal. Tens of millions of viewers in Austria and Germany tuned in to see the slightly built young woman, her appearance lightly camouflaged with a headscarf, as she appeared on TV. She showed herself to be adept in the 40-minute performance.
Between the age of 10 and 18 she had talked to one person only: her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, whom she called simply “the criminal”.

Among viewer, her mother Brigitta Sirny, who has had only very limited time with her daughter since her release. Kampusch said she needed more time to adjust. “What moved me very much,” said her mother, “was that she made a pact with herself to do whatever it takes to be free again. With that she showed strength.” Neighbours in the Rennbahnsiedlung suburb of Vienna where Natascha lived remarked on how strong she had appeared. One said: “It is a miracle that she is still together mentally after such a long time, but nothing will compensate her for the eight years in captivity.” Kampusch has said she now wants to travel with her family, study and become involved with humanitarian work helping the poor in Africa and Central America.

There is general surprise at how self-assured Natascha Kampusch appeared after her eight years in captivity. The Heute daily is impressed. “Natascha didn’t speak like an 18-year old girl. Her words are carefully chosen, and she uses specialist medical terms.”
But the paper – which printed a picture of her drying her eyes during the interview – says she also showed her vulnerability. “The child in her smiles shyly, her expression shows her inner turmoil.”

Speaking on Austrian TV broadcast the first interview with Natascha Kampusch, she described being thrown into a pitch-black room, and banging on the wall with water bottles and her fists in the futile hope someone would hear her. “It was terrible,” she said, her face pale and her voice raw from a cold. “I had claustrophobic feelings in this little room.”
Wearing a headscarf so she might more easily hide her identity in the future, kidnapped Austrian Natascha Kampusch has faced the cameras to give a detailed account of her eight years in captivity. On the day she was snatched from the street by Wolfgang Priklopil, she told of the suspicions she had on seeing him, and her anger at not reacting more quickly: “He grabbed me. I tried to scream but no sound came out. Yes, I was in desperation and very angry. I was very upset with myself that I hadn’t crossed the street and that I did not go to school with my mother in her car.” Once I wanted to jump out of the moving car on to the road, but he held me tight and accelerated so fast I was thrown against the door,” she told Krone Zeitung.

Natascha Kampusch spent much of her time holed up in a six-metre square room under Kriplokil’s windowless basement garage in Strasshof, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Vienna. She was provided with books to read and spoke impeccable German in the interview.
Despite appearing composed, she revealed some of the inner trauma when she said death had held no fear for her – because it would have meant escape from her captor.
She reportedly weighed just 42 kilograms (92 pounds) at the time of her escape ??? exactly her weight when she was kidnapped. “I have often been starving,” she said, “and I experienced circulation and concentration problems.” Priklopil threatened to commit suicide if Kampusch fled, she said. Kampusch describes him as someone who maintained an outside image of a friendly person, willing to help everyone.
Kampusch’s basement dwelling, located beneath a garage, contained a bathroom. She was allowed access to books, radio and television. Priklopil was one of the people interviewed in April 1998 because of the make of his car. He told police that he used it to transport construction material and he wasn’t investigated further.
She is still reliving her escape. When her captor was distracted by a phone call from his mother, she sprinted across neighbouring gardens and managed to persuade a woman to help. For 12 minutes before the police arrived, she shivered with fear her kidnapper would find and kill her.
Kampusch escaped after Priklopil stepped away to take a call on his cell phone. The girl was about to vacuum his red BMW car and then ran over to a neighbor.

Mostly, Natascha Kampusch did not discuss her relationship with Priklopil, who committed suicide hours after she escaped, the question of physical or sexual abuse was carefully avoided in the TV interview, sensitively conducted by 34-year-old Austrian journalist Christoph Feurstein. Kampusch sat opposite him, dressed in jeans, a violet blouse and matching headscarf. She frequently half closed her eyes, apparently against the bright lighting, but according to some analysts also as a defence mechanism.
Neuropsychologist Johann Zapotoczky noted on Thursday: “When things got really delicate, she clearly made defensive movements with her eyes and hands.”

Looking forward, Natascha Kampusch said she wanted to finish her her high school diploma education and maybe become an actress. She said she had a “certain responsibility” and that she planned to set up a foundation that would sponsor aid projects, including one focusing on the fate of women who have disappeared in Mexico and victims of hunger in Africa. Her overriding wish now was simply to be normal. Once she had wanted to be an actress, now she was considering becoming a journalist or a psychiatrist, the two professions most concerned with her fate.
“I promised myself I would grow older, stronger and sturdier to be able to break free one day,” she said. “I made a pact with my older self that I would come back and free that little girl.”
Of her captor, she said: “I think I was stronger. He had an unstable personality. In a certain way, he lacked something like self-assurance.”

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Posted by woman on Sep 8 2006. Filed under Women Diary, Women Gossip, Women Personality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry