AMSTETTEN, AUSTRIA—Austrian doctors kept a woman and her children – freed from a windowless cellar that had been their prison for years – away from the public eye Tuesday, and said it would take weeks of treatment before they could get used to living in a world they have never known.

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, and her children “are in a treatment container that can be locked from the inside” to shield them from the outside world, child and youth psychologist Paulus Hochgatterer told ORF public television.

Police said Elisabeth’s father, Josef Fritzl, had confessed to holding his daughter captive for 24 years in a cellar in their apartment, sexually abusing her, fathering her children and tossing into a furnace the body of one child who died in infancy.

Investigators say they believe Fritzl’s wife, with whom he also had seven other children, was unaware that the daughter she believed ran away to join a religious cult in 1984 was living as a prisoner beneath her feet.

The father was remanded in custody when he made a first appearance before a judge on Tuesday.

DNA test results confirmed Tuesday that Fritzl was indeed the father of her daughter’s six surviving children.

“The DNA tests provided decisive evidence that the six children that Elisabeth gave birth to had the same father,” chief investigator Franz Polzer said.

Elisabeth and her children face several weeks of treatment to start getting them used to everything they have missed during their incarceration, Hans-Heinz Lenze, head of social services in Amstetten, where the family live, told a news conference.

Outside world

“Only very gradually are they being exposed to the outside world,” Hochgatterer said, adding that “given the circumstances, they’re actually doing quite well.”

Lenze said: “They’re together and are doing as well as can be expected in the circumstances.”

Doctors would determine when police would be allowed to question them, but that was unlikely to be for several days yet, Lenze said.

The authorities were looking for a special school for the three children who had lived all their lives underground, as well as those who lived upstairs in the house.

Change of names

And the authorities had proposed changing the names not only of Elisabeth and her six children, but also Elisabeth’s adult brothers and sisters, Lenze said.

“The name Fritzl has been muddied,” he said, insisting that the family “will decide its own future.”

The case has shocked Austria, coming only two years after a similar case of sequestration, that of Natascha Kampusch, hit the headlines.

Kampusch, now 20, was kidnapped and imprisoned from the age of 10 for over eight years by her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, until she managed to escape in August 2006.

Horrific crime

Unlike Natascha, Elisabeth Fritzl’s three children have never known the outside world, except via the television set and radio their father Josef allowed them to have in the dungeon.

Their mental and cognitive development was therefore likely to be impaired, said psychologist Hochgatterer.

Psychotherapist Rotraud Perner told ORF that she was “optimistic” that the children would respond well to therapy.

“The younger someone is, the more chance you have of having a corrective influence,” she said.

In the meantime, Austrian newspapers asked how Fritzl managed to get away with his horrific crime for so long without family or neighbors noticing.

A thousand questions

“One confession and 1,000 questions,” ran the headline of the daily Kurier. “Josef F.’s double life still hides many secrets.”

The tabloid Heute meanwhile noted in an editorial: “What kind of country is this?” echoing reactions in the foreign media, while the daily Oesterreich called: “More moral courage!”

The daily Der Standard added: “It’s especially shocking and outrageous that neighbors didn’t see anything, although they now say there was ‘indeed always something odd’ when TV cameras are running.”

Fritzl faces up to 15 years in jail for rape and imprisonment, according to the press.

Power complex

Police were continuing to search the cell in which he held his captives for so many years.

Investigators released photos of the suspect Monday in the hope that witnesses who had seen him buying food and clothing for his captives, including baby food and diapers, might step forward.

Austrian newspapers carried photos Tuesday showing Fritzl on recent beach holidays in Thailand, during which he would leave his prisoners in the underground dungeon.

Mental health experts said Fritzl, a retired electrician, likely suffered from a “power complex” and other psychiatric disorders.

Fritzl appears to have been driven by pronounced narcissism and a need to exercise power over others—and that may help explain how he got away with the abuse for so long—said Austrian psychiatrist Reinhard Haller.

“This man must have been insane and must have felt he was far superior to others,” Haller said.

Like God

Court psychiatrist Sigrun Rossmanith said Fritzl essentially had two personalities: “The underground one, and the one that existed above.”

“If someone has power and forces it on someone else, then his word is like the word of God,” she said.

Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client also was under psychiatric care. Asked whether he showed any remorse, Mayer said only: “I cannot say at this point.”

Residents of this working-class town were puzzled as to how the latest instance could go undetected for so long.

“How is it possible that no one knew anything for 24 years?” asked Anita Fabian, a teacher in Amstetten. “This was not possible without accomplices.”

Reintraud Weissenberger, who runs a pharmacy down the street from the Fritzl home, said that Josef and his wife, Rosemarie, were clients.

But she said there was nothing strange in their purchasing patterns.

Police released several photos showing parts of the cramped basement cell, with a gaily decorated small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom.

House of Horror

Investigators said an electronic keyless-entry system apparently kept Elisabeth from escaping.

The case unfolded after the eldest of the secret children, a 19-year-old woman, was found unconscious and gravely ill on April 19 in the building and was taken to a hospital. After receiving a tip, police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday near the hospital.

The building where Elisabeth and her children were held—branded “The House Of Horrors” in the Austrian media—is on one of the town’s busiest streets, lined with cafes, a florist and home decoration shops.

The entrance to the windowless cellar, which police said also contained a padded cell, was at the back of the block on a smart street lined with small family houses.

Fritzl, whom police described as “dynamic, bossy and authoritarian,” had hidden the entrance to the cell behind shelves and only he knew the code for the concrete door.

Photographs of the house showed a narrow passageway leading into other rooms that included a cooking area, with children’s drawings on the walls, a sleeping area and a small bathroom with a shower.

Wife didn’t know

Police believe Josef’s wife did not know what happened to her daughter when she disappeared in 1984.

Fritzl had said Elisabeth had joined a sect and that she had left the children on the doorstep. He forced Elisabeth to sign handwritten letters to prove his claims, said the police.