On Friday I visited a former top secret Stasi Prison complex. It gave me a very eerie feeling and made me think of the human rights abuses going on in the US today in Prisons such as Pelican Bay. The Stasi used to keep political prisoners in a damp and moldy basement here and use various means of torture to try and get them to confess, once they confessed of a crime (usually they were innocent anyway) they would be transferred to another prison to carry out their sentence.
Then the Stasi decided to use means of psychological torture instead of physical in the 1970's and 80's and built a slightly more humane prison, with cells that had windows and were not rank with mold. It was really intense going into the interrogation rooms they used to use. I thin it is important to remember this is not just some distant piece of the past but a very real experience that many Berliners had to face before 1989 and some of the people guiding the tours had been detained there in the 80's under political pretenses. This prison was kept so secret that even when the wall came down, there were no protests going on outside this prison because many people had no idea it existed, or were not sure where is really was since it did not appear on any official maps.
Then the Stasi decided to use means of psychological torture instead of physical in the 1970's and 80's and built a slightly more humane prison, with cells that had windows and were not rank with mold. It was really intense going into the interrogation rooms they used to use. I thin it is important to remember this is not just some distant piece of the past but a very real experience that many Berliners had to face before 1989 and some of the people guiding the tours had been detained there in the 80's under political pretenses. This prison was kept so secret that even when the wall came down, there were no protests going on outside this prison because many people had no idea it existed, or were not sure where is really was since it did not appear on any official maps.
it's sobering that your guide was imprisoned there.
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