07. 09. 10. - 12:00

Kampusch kidnapper 'was Nazi and happy about 9/11'

Natascha Kampusch has claimed her abductor was a "Nazi out of fear" and that he delighted in the 9/11 terror attacks.

In an exceptional interview, the 21-year-old Viennese – who fled from Wolfgang Priklopil’s clutches after more than eight years in 2006 – said today (Tues): "I spoke with him about it after hearing on the radio what happened in New York on that day. I pointed out how many people lost their lives, and he just said the attack would end the Jews’ world domination’."

Asked whether she thinks Priklopil – who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train hours after she escaped – was a Nazi, she told the Kurier: "I don’t think he was a ‘real Nazi’. I don’t think it mattered to him whether these people (who were killed) were Jewish or not. He didn’t like Americans. He felt threatened and haunted by everybody. So more of a ‘Nazi out of fear’."

Kampusch also revealed she planned to kill herself three times during the eight and a half years Priklopil imprisoned her.

"I always thought I’d be locked up there forever. I didn’t want to live that way," she said, adding that Priklopil also chained her to the bed with cable fixers, fearing she would escape.

Kampusch – whose autobiography "3,096 Tage" (3,096 Days) will be released in 11 European countries tomorrow – said she wrote down "resolutions" and hung those sheets on the walls of the cellar dungeon her kidnapper kept her in most of the time.

Describing the notes to herself, she said: "Don’t let it get you down when he tells you that you’re too stupid for everything. Don’t let it get you down when he beats you. Don’t believe him when he tells you that you can’t live without him. Don’t react when he turns off the lights. Forgive him for everything and don’t be mad at him. Be stronger. Don’t give up."

Kampusch revealed Priklopil – who shaved her head at one point – burned her hair whenever he noticed it lying somewhere on the floor. "He immediately burned it and poured tube cleaner on the spot fearing DNA traces. He was afraid all the time police would suddenly appear at the house," she said.

Ernst Holzapfel, Priklopil’s best friend and business partner, told judges at Vienna’s Criminal Court last week the kidnapper branded himself a rapist after he urged him to meet after Kampusch ran away.

"Priklopil declared himself an abductor and rapist. I was shocked and suddenly realised that the girl he once introduced to me as a kid from the neighbourhood was Natascha Kampusch," Holzapfel – who was found not guilty of complicity in suicide – said.

Secret police interview documents leaked to press last month show that the paedophile abductor took his victim on at least 13 trips during the captivity.

Kampusch’s lawyer Gerald Ganzger is understood to have held talks with his client over pressing compensation claims against the Republic of Austria. Kampusch – who bought her kidnapper’s house and BMW – could be awarded up to half a million Euros, according to experts.

Meanwhile, Viennese daily Die Presse reports half of the 50,000 Euros people donated to Kampusch’s foundation had still not been paid out to victims of sexual or physical abuse as promised by Kampusch four years ago.

Kampusch transferred 25,000 Euros to the victims of dungeon demon Josef Fritzl, according to the report, which claimed that the rest of the donations were still stashed in a bank account.

Die Presse reports that Kampusch garnered too few donations to set up a foundation, and that she had not yet decided about where the rest of the money should go.