Inside a Former KGB Prison

beetravels — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:07:00 GMT

While many people know about the Berlin Wall, I didn't know until recently that Potsdam was another city along that wall. In 1988, I knew someone who was from West Berlin, but who had been visiting Canada at the very time when the wall came down. Ever since, anything related to the Berlin Wall has fascinated me, especially the stories of people's lives affected by it. My wanting to know more about the stories behind this once divided country is what drove me to find this site in Potsdam, in former East Germany.

When I visited this former prison, the air was crisp and I'll admit that going inside felt a bit eery. Dr. Reich said that prisoners arrived with only what they had on their backs and were not given a change of clothes. Ever. Part of the torture was enduring with so little. If they arrived during summer wearing shorts, they would have to wear them through the winter, if they were there that long. If they didn't die in the prison or get sentenced to death, they were shipped at some point to Siberian gulag camps...

All around, the experience must have been awful. I felt chills down my spine seeing the isolation rooms and the standing rooms. But I am happy with what the memorial site and Dr Reich's staff in undertaking. Uncovering the stories of the prisoners is important work. When one looks at those walls, one can only be drawn to them, wanting to know more about the people who made those marks, people who perhaps wished that someday, somehow, by literally leaving their marks, their stories would be known...

A few of the younger individuals who marked the walls survived, and Dr. Reich's team has been able to find them to learn their stories first hand. That, to me, is incredible.

BEE Travels

Inside a Former KGB Prison