I’m not sure what one would expect to see at a prison that didn’t officially exist. On maps it was simply a grey block, and until one is right upon it, the prison fits into the surrounding apartments and factory buildings nicely.
But once a person takes a few more steps toward Genslerstraße, past a grocery store and pay parking lot, the feeling in the air is noticeably unheimlich: strange and unsettling. Entering the complex with an unsettled feeling highlights an irony of this terrible place. The Ministerium für STAatsSIcherheit (State security) provided anything but true security for its visitors.
If there were a competition for places with bad karma, this would have to be in the running. “Enemies of the State” were driven to this facility in disguised delivery trucks. They often didn’t know they were to be arrested, so they were stunned and worried from the get-go. Once at the prison, the detainees were stripped and searched…not to actually search for contraband, more to demean and begin the manipulation process.
After a strip search, prisoners would be housed in any number of cells. Large and small cells resembled modern-day prison cells, though other cells were much cruder. Some had rubber walls, others metal floors. The prisoners could not look at each other in the eye, or speak with one another, and rarely had opportunity to do that. Isolation was the name of this game, so that guards and Stasi informants appeared to be friends.
The lengths the Stasi went to, to manipulate prisoners into giving up information, was amazing. During interrogation for example, Stasi operatives would select the perfect interrogator based on the prisoner’s profile. If the prisoner loved coffee and cigarettes, the assigned interrogator would always have a cup and carton at the ready. If the prisoner had a great relationship with his father, the interrogator would resemble the prisoner’s dad.
Some say prisons are for rehabilitation, some say for justice, but this Stasi facility was for one thing: breaking the human spirit.
These stories of Stasi methodology are sometimes confirmed by records, but mostly confirmed by anecdotes. Plausible deniability was a favorite past-time of the guilty. Interestingly enough many Stasi officers were not punished after reunification…many became government workers or local policemen. The rationale: they were simply following the law at the time.
But the bad karma at this place was multiplied by its earlier history. The complex was a factory until 1938, when the Nazis (Nationalsozialisten Partei) took it over. In 1945 however, the Soviet occupiers turned the basement of the main building into a detainment and torture operation. Chinese water torture was used, as well as filling an empty cell ankle-deep with water, and making a prisoner stay in it for days or weeks. One can imagine how that water was after a time.
For as much political funny business as there is in the world today, I can’t imagine how horribly raw life was in post-war East Germany. Constant surveillance was met always by a relentless secret police force, and by communist party leaders drunk with power.
Most importantly, I think responsible people need to keep in mind: this is real life…not fiction. This torture took place. These police forces were truly brutal. And there are still many people alive today who had a hand in this chapter of history.
Visiting a prison such as this is not just a stop into a monument or museum. It’s a harsh reminder of how terribly cruel humans can be to each other in pursuit of power. And at the end of the day, oppressors don’t have power. Rather they have only memories of what they’d done, and bad karma.