Schengen

Stasi prison July 30, 1985

I have missed a lot of news.

We get newspapers once a week.

Of course, the state run: 'Neues Deutschland'.

The criminal prisoners watch TV and get the papers daily.

We don’t see them much as they are in a separate wing.

Only when they distribute food or we exchange clothes.

The Naumburg prison was built for a capacity of about 250 but during the 80's it hosted some 750, mostly political prisoners. There were some 50 criminal convict serving as librarians, in the kitchen, wash rooms or dry-cleaning.

Despite the weekly news feed there is a small, harmless library and chess boards.

While everyone is out for work I’m re-learning chess.

And catch up with the news.

Horrible mostly:

Heysel (which I knew from dad).

Plane crashes and the usual bashing against the West.

Western Europe brings down some barriers while this country keeps raising them.

The Schengen treaty was signed last month which accounts for some interesting discussion at night.

There are a lot of hopes and dreams in the room when we dwell on ‘the real Germany’ and plans are shared of course.

Some of the comrades show pictures of their families and friends in the West.

Some read paragraphs from their letters or share news from other prisons.

Some remain deep quiet and turn into their pillows before long.

*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.