VIENNA — Amid tight security and strong applause, an Austrian kidnap victim presented a book about her 8 1/2-year ordeal Thursday, saying she wrote it to start a new life.
Natascha Kampusch was abducted as a 10- year-old schoolgirl and held in an underground cell in a Vienna suburb until she escaped in August 2006. Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, committed suicide soon after she got away. The story sent shock waves around the world.
In the new account of her captivity, which is titled “3,096 Days” and went on sale earlier this week, the now 22-year-old says she was repeatedly beaten, starved and forced to do housework half-naked at the mercy of a paranoid man who admired Adolf Hitler and wanted her to call him “maestro” and “my lord.”
“Enough time has passed . . . I just wanted to start a new life,” Kampusch told a large crowd crammed into a Vienna bookstore.
As people young and old listened attentively and clapped, Kampusch read excerpts depicting, among other things, her first day in the dungeon, Priklopil’s abuse and her failed attempt — during a ski trip with her captor — to seek help from a woman in a public restroom.
Doris Anthis, a 52-year-old French and history teacher, said she has been fascinated with Kampusch’s story for years.
“I was totally impressed and will definitely also read the book,” she said.
