They didn't see the flowers
As I mentioned in my last blog on Sunday when I was in Berlin I went to the former Stasi-prison in Hohnschonhausen. As a keen Germanist and Historian such things are always of interest. I find East Germany fascinating, so much so that I did my year abroad essay on its demise. Hohnschonhausen was a prison of the East German secret service better known as the Stasi. It was a prison very much for political prisoners, people who were deemed to be threats to the regime, enemies of socialism as they were known, were held there, sometimes for months, sometimes for years.
The prison is today a museum/memorial, although it is not without its controversy, with our guide telling us that people call it the the so-called memorial, or that it is victors' history. I myself, while a "lefty", certainly don't condone the Stalinist police states in the eastern block, and I found that the tour steered clear of making political judgements on the cold war, and communism. Showing what happened at the prison, and showing the Stasi for what they were.
Our guide (the museum is only viewable with a guide) like all guides at Hohnschonhausen was a former inmate. He said that thankfully he was a prisoner for "only" a year or so. With the implication that many of his colleagues had been prisoners a lot longer. The tour started with a brief explanation in the lecture room. He then took us to the old part of the prison, the underground part known as the U-boot (or submarine in English). This was a former Nazi bunker that had been enlarged and turned into a prison. It had been first used by the Soviet secret service after the war, before being handed over to the East German authorities. One could imagine the nastiness of being a prisoner there, underground, not seeing any natural light, and being permanently locked up. The padded isolation cells which were completely dark, looked particularly horrible. The underground part of the prison was used until 1960, after which, it was left largely empty, apart from a small bit near the steps out, used to incarcerate new arrivals.
We then went to the newer part of the prison. This looked a lot more like any old prison, or how I imagine any old prisons to be, never having been sent to one myself (honest!). The cells looked a lot more habitable, and although it wasn't luxurious it did not feel any worse than any prison anywhere else. Not that I am a fan of prisons mind. What was nasty, was that you were permanently isolated, would be subjected to torture techniques until you confessed your crimes, (and even then). For example being subject to sleep deprevation, and even if you weren't you had to sleep on your back with your arms showing and the light on, so they could be sure you wouldn't kill yourself. The weird thing about the modern prison, is that there were as many interview rooms as cells. Our guide showed us one, slightly emotional, you always got the feeling that he was about to start crying. Exercise at the prison consisted or being put into a cell with no roof and being forced to walk around in it.
He started by taking us in through where the prisoners would have arrived, in a small special truck as shown in the film Das Leben der Anderen. Just a boring grey truck with adverts on the side, but inside where small cells to transport people. Inmates would be brought in in the truck, and the door to the arrival bay would be closed, the prisoners would then be allowed out of the truck, but because the bay doors were closed, they would not know where they were. They would then be brought into the building and processed, given prison clothing and slippers and put into a cell. Prisoners did not know where they were, indeed our guide only learned that he was an inmate here when he himself came for a tour and recognised the bay where he arrived.
We then went out, and he showed us the prison courtyard with some nice flowers. He explained that if you were ill or injured they would not just walk you across to the hospital but take you to the bay, put you in a truck, drive around for a little bit, and then take you to the prison hospital. No prisoner was ever allowed out into the courtyard, they didn't see the flowers.
The prison is today a museum/memorial, although it is not without its controversy, with our guide telling us that people call it the the so-called memorial, or that it is victors' history. I myself, while a "lefty", certainly don't condone the Stalinist police states in the eastern block, and I found that the tour steered clear of making political judgements on the cold war, and communism. Showing what happened at the prison, and showing the Stasi for what they were.
Our guide (the museum is only viewable with a guide) like all guides at Hohnschonhausen was a former inmate. He said that thankfully he was a prisoner for "only" a year or so. With the implication that many of his colleagues had been prisoners a lot longer. The tour started with a brief explanation in the lecture room. He then took us to the old part of the prison, the underground part known as the U-boot (or submarine in English). This was a former Nazi bunker that had been enlarged and turned into a prison. It had been first used by the Soviet secret service after the war, before being handed over to the East German authorities. One could imagine the nastiness of being a prisoner there, underground, not seeing any natural light, and being permanently locked up. The padded isolation cells which were completely dark, looked particularly horrible. The underground part of the prison was used until 1960, after which, it was left largely empty, apart from a small bit near the steps out, used to incarcerate new arrivals.
We then went to the newer part of the prison. This looked a lot more like any old prison, or how I imagine any old prisons to be, never having been sent to one myself (honest!). The cells looked a lot more habitable, and although it wasn't luxurious it did not feel any worse than any prison anywhere else. Not that I am a fan of prisons mind. What was nasty, was that you were permanently isolated, would be subjected to torture techniques until you confessed your crimes, (and even then). For example being subject to sleep deprevation, and even if you weren't you had to sleep on your back with your arms showing and the light on, so they could be sure you wouldn't kill yourself. The weird thing about the modern prison, is that there were as many interview rooms as cells. Our guide showed us one, slightly emotional, you always got the feeling that he was about to start crying. Exercise at the prison consisted or being put into a cell with no roof and being forced to walk around in it.
He started by taking us in through where the prisoners would have arrived, in a small special truck as shown in the film Das Leben der Anderen. Just a boring grey truck with adverts on the side, but inside where small cells to transport people. Inmates would be brought in in the truck, and the door to the arrival bay would be closed, the prisoners would then be allowed out of the truck, but because the bay doors were closed, they would not know where they were. They would then be brought into the building and processed, given prison clothing and slippers and put into a cell. Prisoners did not know where they were, indeed our guide only learned that he was an inmate here when he himself came for a tour and recognised the bay where he arrived.
We then went out, and he showed us the prison courtyard with some nice flowers. He explained that if you were ill or injured they would not just walk you across to the hospital but take you to the bay, put you in a truck, drive around for a little bit, and then take you to the prison hospital. No prisoner was ever allowed out into the courtyard, they didn't see the flowers.
posted by Julien at 10:51
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