After World War II the new Germany was divided between several European countries. The Russians received the eastern part, and it was in East Berlin they built their prison. This situation lasted some years, until the Germans got their country back. The new leaders of the country were called the “Stasis”. This was not a prison as we know it today, as the whole prison was a large house of torture. They arrested people for incomprehensible reasons, for instance young people for making jokes about the leaders of the country.

The prison was divided in two parts. The oldest one was from the time the Russians built it, and in the basement of this building were tiny rooms were six and six prisoners were packed together. In addition they had small torture rooms. One of the torture methods they used was the dripping water. The prisoners were tied up so they couldn’t move; a bucket was filled with water and placed over their heads. In the bottom of this bucket there was a tiny hole, and while the prisoners lay there in a dark room they felt one and one drop falling on their foreheads. After the prison was closed, the prisoners uttered that this was one of the worst torture methods.

In the new building, close to the old one, other torture methods were used. A doctor was in charge of the torture, and one of his inventions was the dark room. It was a soundproof room without lights or windows. Here the prisoners could shout, but nobody could hear them, they couldn’t even hear their own voice! To me as a person, this really opened my eyes. The torture methods they used were far away from the thing we call human rights. It was chocking to see all the agony the prisoners had experienced throughout the years.

We were so lucky that we had a guide that was a former prisoner of the Stasi-prison, he could give us a realistic picture of the prison. He was first noted as a criminal because he told a joke in his classroom when he was fourteen years old. Some years later he met a Stasi-policeman, who attacked him and gave him a real punch in the face. When he rose to his feet, the man was so much bigger than him that he just held his hands. To get loose, he kicked the policeman between his legs, and that was what gave him a record. To me this was difficult to believe. How could they treat their own people that way? How could they arrest people simply because they were against the politics of the state?

The guided tour in the prison made me think. What would I do if I was in this situation? Would I inform any of my fellow citizens?

We, the youths in the western countries today, are growing up in a peaceful society. So have our parents. To our parents and us the things that happened in Germany during World War II and the time after are unbelievable. Many of us think that we understand this, but we absolutely don’t. We are naive because we think that things like this can’t happen again. I think that is wrong. The world is now facing a new threat. Countries in the east are developing nuclear bombs that probably will make considerable more damages than the bombings during World War II.

They say that Hitler was mentally disordered, was, or is, he the only one? I don’t think so. So to say that we never would get a situation like we had in Germany again is incorrect.