Killers

Stasi prison July 21, 1985

Everything is rougher here.

Everything is darker here.

Dirty. Guards yell.

Stripped again.

Stinking, old, scratchy uniform.

I’m pushed around like an animal through the slaughter house.

“Kästner Strasse” - I learn.

“You will stay here for a couple of days.”

“All prisoners are gathered here and distributed once a week.”

I’m pushed into a cell with four beds.

Rotten, everything is just rotten.

Two blokes, rotten too.

We don’t speak.

I’m shown an empty bed.

Rotten mattress, one scratchy blanket.

No pillow.

“Use your jacket!”

A third guy enters.

I have never been among people like them before.

They all arrived today, don’t know each other.

And start bragging about their crimes.

One stole all cash in his shop.

One killed his neighbor.

The third wouldn’t say.

I was never that scared in my whole life.

Apparently it’s not their first tour.

All of them are repeat criminals.

It makes them more relaxed though.

Somehow they seem almost “happy”.

So besides my massive fear I’m eager to learn.

“Relax!”

“You’ll be on your way in 2-3 day.”

More crime stories and bragging.

 

*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.