Touching fresh grass

Freedom July 23, 1986

The bus stops.

Two gentlemen enter.

“Welcome in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.”

Government officials from the West German Minister of Intra-German Relations.

Explaining the next steps and where they’ll take us.

Giessen refugee station.

They hand out letters to most of us.

Some of them are older than a year.

I get three letters from my friends.

"Welcome to freedom, when you receive this letter you will be free... why don't you come down to us, we can support your start period with experience and ideas... economy is good, unemployment rate is down..."

Actually I wanted to go to West Berlin.

Many of my comrades had planned to go there.

I'll have to decide within the next couple of days I guess.

The trip will take another 2-3 hours.

Stepping out of the bus, the sun is shining.

My first steps as a free man, my first touch of fresh grass.

And then they give us sandwiches.

Freshly baked rolls with lettuce, salami, tomatoes and cheese.

This is the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my entire life.

*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.