Stockholm Syndrome: The story of Natascha Kampusch and her 3,096 Days of Captivity

Stockholm Syndrome: The story of Natascha Kampusch and her 3,096 Days of Captivity 

On March 2, 1998, ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch left her family home to walk to school. Her mother saw her walk to the end of the street, turn the corner, then disappear; unknown to anyone at this time, this would be the last time she saw Natascha for nearly nine years. As Natascha was roughly halfway to her school she saw a man standing outside of a white truck, seemingly waiting for someone. Her gut told her to cross the street, but the naive brain of a child told her that adults are there to defend her; once she was close enough, he grabbed her and forced her into the vehicle. For the following eight and a half years, Natascha was psychologically and physically tortured, yet after all that she went through, she stands by the fact that her captor had a mental illness that caused him to hurt her and she does not hate him. How could someone who endured so much have sympathy for the person who caused it? Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological term used to describe an alliance or form of emotional co-dependency formed between captor and victim. Stockholm syndrome is much more likely to happen in children due to their highly suggestible ages; whether or not Natascha has Stockholm Syndrome, her ability to forgive a monster that stole her childhood is inspiring. 

“If you don’t scream and don’t try and get up, I won’t hurt you.” The imposing man looked at Natascha as he talked calmly and sternly. It didn’t matter, though. Natascha was so scared her voice box froze and she was unable to cry for help. 

She vaguely realized the route they were traveling down; her memories of driving around town with her mother and watching the tops of trees and telephone poles whizzing by seemed now to be a tragic memory as she accepts she will never experience those things with her mother again. 

As they pull into his garage, he wraps her up in a blue blanket and he carries her into a cold, damp basement and sets her down; he begins opening door after door in what seemed like an endless maze. Finally, he began dragging her back into a soundproof box underneath his house that seemed to be prepared for her arrival. The first day, he brought her a rubber mattress and left her alone the remaining time. Every day he would go down to the basement and bring her food and water; it took him nearly an hour to move a large cupboard out of the way to reveal a hidden door in the basement wall then pass through the steel-reinforced door and crawl back into the vault she was being kept in. 

After Natascha failed to come home from school on time, her mother reported her missing and soon learned she never made it to school at all. A huge search hunt was launched and a little girl came forward claiming she saw a man push another little girl into a white truck on the same road Natascha was last seen; over 1,000 white trucks and van owners were searched and Wolfgang Priklopil seemed to fit the physical description of her kidnapper. He was initially questioned but police found no proof to explore him further and the claim was filed away. 

After Wolfgang was convinced that Natascha wouldn’t try and run away, he began letting her out of the vault into the garage to help him with his work. Despite keeping her in a dark and dirty hole, he was obsessively clean; if she left fingerprints on any household surfaces he would force her to wipe it away with the back of her hand. When he took her out of the vault, he would pin her hair back with pins that made her head hurt and were very painful. He told her if she cut her hair off, he wouldn’t be forced to pin it back anymore and he shaved it off.  

After years of being in captivity and proving her loyalty to him, he began allowing Natascha to go into the outside garden- at first, it was at night only, then he began allowing her to during the day as well. She vividly recalls her first time stepping outside into the garden after years of not seeing sunlight; she asked him if she could pluck a flower and bring it with her to her room to keep as a memory. To torture her, he would force her to haul heavy pieces of tile, relentlessly force her to hand wash laundry, and fed her such small amounts of food she was practically starving. 

On August 23, 2006, Wolfgang forced Natascha to vacuum out his truck while he spoke on the phone. Due to the noise level, he stepped away for a second and Natascha took the chance to finally escape; she ran as fast as she could and was finally spotted and taken in by authorities. Wolfgang left his home, drove to the nearby train station, and laid down on the tracks, committing suicide after the train ran over his head. When Natascha was asked by the media if she was raped or sexually assaulted, she refused to answer and instead offered a different answer; if the public was aware of true atrocities she experienced at the hands of Wolfgang, they would even further isolate and reject her from society. 

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