Another arrival

Stasi prison July 17, 1986

The van stops.

It’s been way more than one hour.

I counted the first 15 minutes, doubled it by feeling and doubled it again.

Anything after the second double would bring me closer to the dream.

This trip was unbearably stressful.

The door opens.

Two guards outside.

“Where are we?”

“JVA Kaßberg.”

Stasi prison Kaßberg (in a neighborhood in former Karl-Marx-Stadt, Chemnitz today). Tract A housed political prisoners, tract B these political prisoners processed for ransom by the West German government, tract C was a reserve.

This is it.

I made it!

The final stage.

They push me inside.

Run down as all their prisons.

New clothes and a new cell with 5 inmates.

“Is this a dream?”

“You made it mate!”

“4-5 days and you’re gone”

Still can’t believe it.

Everybody is giggling and foaming with joy.

Plans are made and shared, stories told without the darkness.

Some have been here since yesterday, some a little longer.

“It takes them 4-5 days and then the bus picks you up.”

“Direct one way ticket to freedom mate."

*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.