A Stasi Prison

Today, our class took a tour of a Stasi prison. We learned about reasons why citizens of the DDR were admitted, and how the Stasi used operational psychology to torture the prisoners. We toured multiple cells as well as interrogation rooms that were used until the reunification of Germany.

The prison was very regimented and systematic; prisoners weren’t allowed to see one another ever and they were constantly being watched. After our lecture by our tour guide, we learned that he was once a former prisoner. Our guide was caught talking to an American embassy guard about skateboards and was arrested at age 13, this was only one arrest among many seemingly minor offenses against the DDR.

Image and Text by Hanna and Zach