Cash

Stasi prison September 24, 1985

My folks are here.
Guard checks the care package.
What do you bring potatoes for?

“They’re Kiwi’s”.
Silence.
“From New Zealand”.

Him cutting one of five Kiwi’s in the middle doesn’t really make him look smarter.
My folks stretched the weight limit and their budget by a margin.
Again: the finest food you can’t even buy.

Smoked filet, fresh produce from the West, Swiss chocolate.
“The chocolate milk powder is especialy yummy.”
I know what mom means - the cash.

East German companies produce some Western goods with special licenses.
Folks can buy it for horrendeous prices.
Chocolate powder is 8 marks.

The whole care package might amount to 30% of my dads monthly income.
I won’t complain although I want to.
But their smiles forbid it.

They’re looking much, much better.
Their new friends have husbands in here.
Got the names now and need to find them.

Friends and family stand closely by me.
Dad copes much better with his dad’s passing.
We leave each other in highest hopes but don’t know about the future.

Promising each other to find ways to see each other after I leave the country as planned is one thing.
Executing without creating trouble and on a budget is another.
But love will break down most barriers.

Back to the cell I find the cash sealed in the chocoloate powder container.
200 marks real outside money - that’s at least 1’000 in here.
I’m goddam rich and I’ll eat much healthier.

East German companies produced some Western goods with special licenses. Most products had to be imported from the West for horrendeous prices though.
Chocolate powder was 8 marks.
A day's salary for most folks.

*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.