A measured welcome

Stasi prison April 14, 1985

4pm.

It’s like back at summer camp:
Body weight.
Shoe size.
Height.
Eyes.

Copied from my Stasi files in 1990. One of the first documents they established was a broad brush medical check with my "features".

If there is one thing very German, then its their obsession with accuracy and documenting shit.
I feel like a farm animal at an auction.
After the examination I get clothes.

Must be state militia clothes from the 50s.
Ugly, outworn gray underwear.
Navy blue felt trousers.
Thick woolen socks.
Blue butcher shirt.
Jacket.

I’m warm again.
But very cold inside.
And I still don’t know what comes next.

*Testimony -> Start. This blog entry is part of a linear narrated testimony of the contemporary witness Jens Thieme who was imprisoned 1985-1986 as a political prisoner in various GDR prisons by the GDR Ministry of State Security. Stasi prison, Stasi jail, Stasi detention.