Stasi Prison

My friend and I had to go the the Stasi Prison for school. It is located in northeast Berlin and was used to jail political dissenters during the Cold War.

This brick building was built by the Nazis when they used the facility during WWII.

Here is the hallway with the main cells. They would cram up to 20 prisoners in one small cell, and make them stand all day!

There was carpet on the floor of the hallway so the prisoners never knew when the guards would come check up on them to make sure they were standing...this was a form of psychological torture.

Other cells would be filled with 4-5 inches of water that the prisoners had to stand in. Yet another form of torture was making prisoners stand wider doorways with both sides sealed off for 48 hours. Imagine someone like Nick (below) doing this!

They used Chinese water torture as well...

This was a cell in the hospital-prison where the doctors would experiment on the "patients."

Our tour guide was arrested by the Stasi when she lived in East Berlin during the Cold War. She was apparently a well-known political dissenter who was released after a bout of public outrage.

This room was used to interrogate prisoners, and create records about their health and stature.

The creepiest part to me were the linoleum floors; it reminded me of an insane asylum or something!

Apparently the employees, doctors, and guards who worked at the prison lived nearby, and still live there to this day.

This was the inner courtyard. Now there is a stone memorial commemorating all the people who lost their lives in the prison due to the torture and poor conditions...about half the people who came in never came back out.