The wrong door

Stasi prison July 03, 1986

Gone.

Rudolf is gone.

Out the wrong way.

Former GDR (German 'Democratic' Republic) prison Naumburg served as a prison for the Stasi (MfS - Ministerium für Staatssicherheit). They locked up political prisoner here to sell them for Western currency or good to West Germany. In Naumburg most political prisoners had to work in inhuman conditions in furniture factories.

During the last days he was called in for paperwork.

This only happens for people not going onto transport.

As painful the process, it also gradually kills off your hope.

Everyone who left this prison through the front gate went through this.

The comrades stand together in solidarity and try to lend comfort.

Some 10-15% of political prisoners in here went back home.

We spent the last night eating the best food that was left.

In the morning there was no early call-out.

We just went to work without him.

When we returned he was gone.

His bed empty,

So was I.

*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.