00:00There are many well-known examples of cruel and unethical scientific experiments.
00:05Humanity has often had to pay a high price for new knowledge.
00:09But the story of the Frenchwoman Maud Maud-Julien is far more shocking than most of the most twisted experiments
00:15of the past.
00:15She became a guinea pig for her own father.
00:18Maud's childhood was turned into a real hell for one purpose, to create a superhuman.
00:24To tell the world about her life and about surviving in a concentration camp in her own home,
00:29Maud Maud-Julien only dared to do so after 40 years.
00:33Here is what happened within the walls of her home.
00:44The story began in 1936.
00:47That was when 34-year-old French businessman Louis Didier made an unusual deal with a pair of poor miners.
00:54He bought their youngest daughter.
00:56The man promised to give the girl an education and not deny her anything.
01:01There was only one condition.
01:02The parents would never see their daughter again.
01:05After carefully weighing all the pros and cons, they agreed.
01:09The family was barely making ends meet, while Louis Didier was wealthy and ran his own car service.
01:15That's how the girl named Janine ended up under the care of a stranger.
01:19His plan was to raise a superhuman.
01:22However, Louis Didier's newly adopted daughter was already six years old by then.
01:28She wasn't quite suitable for his idea.
01:31He had to change his strategy.
01:33First of all, the man kept his word.
01:36Janine graduated from university.
01:38But all this time, he was not only taking care of the girl, but also raising a wife for himself.
01:43Quiet and obedient.
01:45And when Janine turned 28, she gave birth to a blonde daughter.
01:49Little Maud became her father's main project.
01:52For her upbringing, Louis Didier bought a small estate in the north of France, where he soon moved his family.
01:58He chose this secluded place for two reasons.
02:01First, to protect his daughter from the influence of the outside world, which he considered destructive.
02:07Second, the man wanted to toughen her character without unnecessary attention.
02:11During her early years, the girl was allowed to play in the garden after finishing lessons with her mother.
02:16But from the age of five, she was deprived of free time.
02:20Louis Didier had grand plans.
02:22He wanted to raise a woman who could lead humanity to a new stage of development.
02:27In his opinion, she had to be able to overcome any danger and conquer any obstacle.
02:33To achieve this, the man developed his own approach to raising her and turned the house into a testing ground.
02:39While her mother was teaching Maud, her father was training her endurance and emotional resilience.
02:45The parents were convinced that any display of emotion was a dangerous weakness that needed to be eradicated, just like
02:53laziness and fear.
02:54Maud was deprived of many comforts.
02:56She slept in an unheated room on a bed without a mattress.
02:59She was allowed to bathe only once a week and only in the cold, dirty bathwater her parents had already
03:04used.
03:05Her father believed that comfort hindered the development of superhuman abilities.
03:10The girl had no toys or dragons, and her diet excluded fruits, yogurt, and fresh bread.
03:15For the most part, Maud was fed bland food with low nutritional value.
03:20According to her father's plan, her body was supposed to learn how to cope with a lack of vitamins.
03:25The restrictions even applied to toilet paper.
03:29The girl was only allowed to use one square.
03:32And when she turned seven, new challenges were devised for her.
03:36From then on, every meal was accompanied by cognac or whiskey.
03:40This had a devastating effect on the child's liver.
03:44Her father said that being able to handle intoxication was a useful tool.
03:48With it, you could learn any enemy secrets, recalls Maud.
03:53From time to time at night, the barefoot girl was left in a cold, dark basement filled with rodents.
03:59Her own mother, Janine, sewed a bell onto her sweater so the girl wouldn't move.
04:04According to her mother, the sound attracted rats.
04:07For the same reason, Maud wasn't allowed to cry.
04:10And to teach her daughter to suppress her emotions, she was forced to hold on to an electric fence for
04:15ten minutes.
04:16The time free from training was devoted to lessons, music, and sports.
04:20The child was taught fencing, horseback riding, gymnastics, and swimming.
04:25And her father also decided that she absolutely had to master many musical instruments.
04:30He said,
04:31Only musicians survive in concentration camps.
04:34Maud learned to play the piano, violin, saxophone, trumpet, accordion, and double bass.
04:41Maud Yulian claims that she managed to keep her humanity only thanks to music books and her beloved pets.
04:47She had a duck, a German shepherd, and a pony.
04:51As she grew older, the girl learned to deceive her father.
04:55Despite constant supervision, she managed to secretly eat sweets, tear off a second square of toilet paper,
05:01climb out the window, and wander around the garden at night.
05:04You can endure the toughest trials and still find a way out.
05:09Maud is sure of it.
05:10The girl's life changed completely with the arrival of the music teacher.
05:14Monsieur Maud noticed the bruises and cuts on her body and guessed what was happening within the walls of the
05:20estate.
05:20He persuaded the new student's parents to let her have a few lessons at his place.
05:24There were professional instruments and a more creative atmosphere.
05:29Surprisingly, Louis Didier agreed.
05:31He was convinced that his daughter had been trained enough and would never go against his will.
05:37After talking to Maud, the teacher confirmed his assumptions.
05:41And a little later, he got her a job at a music shop.
05:44It was here that the girl met her first love.
05:48By that time, her father had already found a suitable match for his daughter, a 50-year-old homosexual.
05:54However, Monsieur Maud intervened again.
05:57He advised marrying Maud to a young student named Richard, with whom she had already started a romantic relationship.
06:03Needless to say, Louis Didier was not happy about this.
06:06After much thought, he gave his blessing to his daughter, but with one important condition,
06:11to return home whenever he called for her and take care of him until the end of his days.
06:16The father miscalculated.
06:17After being freed from 18 years of home confinement, Maud refused to return to her parents.
06:22She had to spend a long time learning how to communicate with people and restoring her health.
06:27In addition to liver problems, the girl had damaged teeth.
06:31And psychotherapists spent years helping her cope with guilt and regular panic attacks.
06:37Maud Julien couldn't bring herself to share her story even with her husband.
06:41He only learned the details in 1981, after the death of Louis Didier.
06:45Shortly before that, the girl visited her father.
06:49However, he didn't say a word.
06:51Maud Julien was only able to start a new life after completing a full course of rehabilitation.
06:57She got an education, gave birth to two daughters, and became a successful psychotherapist herself.
07:02According to Maud, to prepare herself for motherhood, she often went to the park and spent a long time watching
07:08how other women interacted with their children.
07:10I didn't want to take any risks and make my child suffer from the consequences of my traumas and phobias,
07:16admits Maud.
07:17Today, she lives in Paris and helps people cope with psychological trauma.
07:21In addition, a few years ago, Maud published an autobiographical book called The Only Girl in the World.
07:28The author sent one copy as a gift to her mother, to which her mother replied that her daughter still
07:33hadn't understood her father's great ideas.
07:35My main advice is not to lose hope. There is always a way out.
07:40We have far more psychological resources than we think, Maud is convinced.
07:44This is really important.
07:46The writer herself says about her book that it is not a memoir about misfortunes.
07:50For me, it's a guide to escaping from prison, she says.
07:54Now I am a person with a real life, in a happy marriage, and I have children.
07:59I want this book to be a book of hope. That's such an unusual story.
08:04And most likely, many more people than we think have faced something similar, even if in a milder form.
08:11Share your stories in the comments under this episode.
08:13They might also become a valuable lesson for someone.
08:16Thank you for watching and see you on the Kremola channel.
