Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gedenkstätte Hohenschönhausen - and is, if anything, even more creepy than the
Stasi Museum.
Tours, sometimes led by former prisoners, reveal the full extent of the terror and
cruelty perpetrated upon thousands of suspected political opponents, many utterly
innocent. If you've seen the Academy Award-winning film The Lives of Others,you
may recognise many of the original settings. Since October 2013, a permanent exhibit
has documented the history of the prison and explained the system of political perse-
cution in the GDR.
Old maps of East Berlin show a blank spot where the prison was: officially, it did not
exist. In reality, the compound had three incarnations. Right after WWII, the Soviets
used it to process prisoners (mostly Nazis, or those suspected to be) destined for the
gulag. More than 3000 detainees died here because of atrocious conditions - usually
by freezing in their unheated cells - until the Western Allies intervened in October
1946.
The Soviets then made it a regular prison, dreaded especially for its 'U-Boat', an un-
derground tract of damp, windowless cells outfitted only with a wooden bench and a
bucket. Prisoners were subjected to endless interrogations, beatings, sleep depriva-
tion and water torture. Everybody signed a confession sooner or later.
In 1951 the Soviets handed over the prison to the Stasi, who ended up adopting its
mentors' methods. Prisoners were locked up in the U-Boat until a new, much bigger
cell block was built, with prison labour, in the late '50s. Psycho-terror now replaced
physical torture: inmates had no idea of their whereabouts and suffered total isolation
and sensory deprivation. Only the collapse of the GDR in 1989 put an end to the hor-
ror.
EATING
Boxhagener Platz & North Kiez
ASIAN
LEMON LEAF
noon-midnight; ; Frankfurter Tor)
Cheap and cheerful, this place is always swarmed by loyal local hipsters and for good reas-
on: light, inventive and fresh, the Vietnamese menu has few false notes. Intriguing choice:
the sweet-sour Indochine Salad with banana blossoms.
