Transport and tea

Stasi prison August 04, 1985

Started playing chess again.

Today, Sunday we run a little tournament.

Won three games in the morning but got knocked out after lunch.

One guy asked me to cut his hair.

“They won’t cut it if you wear it short enough.”

I must be talented: cut three more guys’ hair after they saw the result.

Last Thursday they called out one of the comrades from our cell.

“SG ####: pack your stuff!”

Exciting!

He was in here for 8 months.

Including pre-trial interrogation he had spent 11 of his 16 months.

Same paragraph: §214, so I could be out of here in March if not earlier.

It was an emotional scene as he hugged his ‘bro’ and waved to us as he left.

They try to get the ’transport guys’ out of the cell as quickly as possible.

There is no much time to bid farewell.

Everyone is left with an empty feeling and a lot of hope.

His ‘bro’ inherited his food, tea and money.

“I won’t need it anymore.”

Now he is alone again and needs to spend it wisely.

Or hook up with another guy to be a team again.

I understand the concept now.

When you really like someone you put all cash into a mutual account.

Food is shared which is great when the both have visitors two weeks apart.

Buying decisions are taken together, like: what is sold to buy what or how much to spend on tea.

There is some great tea in here and people trade all the time.

An old army food container is used to cook the tea for all.

15 liters are heated with a self made immersion heater.

Ex army food containers as used in GDR prisons were used to transport food and cook tea.

The guards tolerate the food container.

But I’m told to always hide the immersion heater device.

It violates safety rules in here and some guys earned solitary confinement when caught.

The immersion heater is quite simply made from two wires and two iron platelets.

As someone stands guard two guys unscrew the light bulb and use the socket (never use both arms in the circuit!).

15 liters heat up in about ten minutes.

*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.