Shower

Stasi prison April 18, 1985

It’s amazing how humans adjust to new environments.

The cold, gray cell feels like a mini home when they drop me off after long interrogation days.
The walk to and from Baby Schubert’s room is familiar by now.
Even the weakness that is more pronounced today feels somewhat comfortable.

Shower cell inside the Stasi pre-trial prison.

It’s mine.
I create that.
I have control over it.

Thursday.
Shower day.
First order of business.

An old bar of soap.
Used many times before.
It's more roomy than my cell.

Warm water.
I have two minutes.
The longest shower ever.

Half wet I climb into my uniform.
To my surprise we walk past my cell.
Two cells further I’m pushed in - double cell.

A guy is sitting on the bed to the right.
“Dirk.”
“Since when are you here.”
“Three months.”

Jesus!

Picked up by a call boy (someone calls them, they walk you places in here).
Baby Schubert again.
“Why is there another guy with me now?”
“That’s normal process. And you need company.”

Do I?
What kind of company?
Theirs?

That’ll be fun!

*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.