Shaky transport

Stasi prison April 14, 1985

5pm.

They find the 3 page manifesto in my clothes that I had prepared weeks in advance.
In it: my entire frustration with the system, my political views that harshly collide with everything that surrounds me.
Geo-political and micro societal themes and very personal reasons why I don’t see a future in this country.

Original transport van for Stasi prisoners (Barkas). It drove dissidents and pretrial prisoners across town between prisons, court houses and other Stasi and state facilities.

And of course: the demand to release me from citizenship in order to leave the country.
Not without reminding them of the UN human rights charter and the Helsinki Final Act from 1975.
What a joke - I know.

One officer glances over the document.
Nobody really looks at me.
As if I’m not here.
Weird.

Armed with that manifesto another officer leaves the room.
I have to sign an inventory of my things.
It’s not much, the letter is mentioned.

Two new dudes appear and ask me to follow.
Inside the courtyard there's a vehicle.
It’s like a box.
With boxes.
I get in.

The box fits exactly around my body.
Wondering how they transport big blokes like the door handler.
There are no windows.
It’s like a blindfold.

The car takes off.
Fast and shaky.
The ride takes less than 10 minutes.
Only interrupted by two gates passing.

Exiting my double box in another court yard.
Being pushed up two flights of stairs.
The building looks like a school.
I don’t expect a teacher.

 

*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.