Shine a light

Stasi prison April 14, 1985

11pm.

Officer Schubert (if that’s his name) calls it a night.
I’ll see him tomorrow.
I can’t wait :P

Stasi pre-trial prison in Leipzig Beethovenstrasse 2. These photos were taken by the civil activist who overran the Leipzig Runde Ecke Stasi Headquarters during the 1989 revolution.

He calls another uniform to have me guided to a cell.
That’s the first prison cell in my life.
With all state powers encounters in the past, the closest I got to a cell was a police car or interrogation room.

The whole place is in lock down, dead quiet.
Looks like a movie scene really.
With me in it.

The guard asks me if I was hungry.
I reject the food again.
He brings it anyway.
I won’t touch it.

The cell is about 3.5x2 meters.
A hard bed, small table, tiny sink, toilet without lid.
No linens. Just a mattress and a felt blanket that’s too small and itchy.

Locked in.
I hate that rattling of the key chain.
There is hardly any light sneaking through the 30x30cm glass brick.

My body feels sore.
I think about my parents, my brother.
What will happen tomorrow, in a week, in a year?

After about 15 minutes a bright spot light is lit above the door for about 3 seconds. 
It will repeat all 15 minutes all night.
After a couple of hours I open my eyes in the dark and feel like someone is standing next to me.
There is nobody.

Just my deep breath and my hunger.

*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.