Jailed toilet

Stasi prison January 22, 1986

6x9ft.

Grid.

6x2ft.

Grid.

6x1ft.

Door.

So, I’m locked inside a prison, in the basement, behind a locked cell door, behind a locked grid that locks-in a toilet, another grid locked, to live on 6x9ft in total darkness.

In other words: I’m locked up together in a cell with a toilet in a cage.

What did the toilet do?

I can’t go to the toilet without the guard unlocking my cell, unlocking the grid from the outside, locking it again, unlocking the grid from the inside so I can use the toilet.

Trouble being: guards only show up down here twice a day.

So I need to go when they bring the food.

Had my first dinner.

Two slices of rotten bread with lard.

No salt, a spoon to spread the lard and one cup of lukewarm tea.

Nobody beat me up.

I yelled and knocked, no response.

Either I’m alone or the walls are too thick.

There is a wooden board for a bed, mounted upright and locked during the day.

So, it can only be used during the night after the guard unlocked it.

No mattress, so I need to use the one blanket to lie on.

It’s freezing cold in here.

Lying on the blanket does exactly nothing to the hardness of the wood.

Using the blanket as cover does exactly nothing to shield me from the moist cold.

I might fall asleep later by exhaustion from the shivering.

My side hurts after ten minutes so I need to turn for ten until the other side hurts too much.

Lying on the back works for exactly two minutes and I feel the wood to replace my entire skeleton.

This will be the most horrible night of my life.

How long will they keep me down here?

Is it so quiet because people died?

*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.