Broken – The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck 0:06 Titelblende Broken 0:18 I had such fear. I feared for my life. I knew what I will experience there will not be good. 0:32 I think there were 33 of us in a holding cell. It was filled with bunk beds, each triple stacked. There was a hierarchy. The new arrivals had to sleep at the bottom. Later they were permitted to sleep in the middle. Those who had been there a while slept at the top. 0:48 We had to get up at 4 in the morning. There was a too-toot sound and the cell matron stood up first, entered the bathroom and yelled, “number 1”, and number 1 had to get up immediately and wash. And while she started, the matron shouted, “number 2!” and then “number 3!” 1:10 There was no lid or anything like that, only the toilet. You just sat down while the others brushed their teeth or got washed. 1:20 You were observed: does she brush her teeth in the mornings and evenings? How does she wash, does she wash herself down below? How does she wipe her behind? You had to wash yourself outwardly, so everyone could see that you cleaned everywhere. 1:34 ... A grey castle, the people had grey faces, and wore grey clothing. The food was grey too. Without anything green or red or some other colour. 1:43 We looked crazed. Like female crows with lipstick. All of us pale, all with black head scarfs. But we painted our lips with matches in order to look a little pretty. 2:06 When I arrived I learned the following: you belong to us now. We are the workers’ commando for sewing bed linens. And then I saw these patterns and materials and thought, “How interesting. I have never seen anything like that in East Germany.” None of us knew where they were going. But I was certain it wasn’t going to the East. 2:26 Basically you had a performance quota and that’s why it was very important that you had a sewing machine that cut well. The knife had to be good but also sew well at the same time. Otherwise you wouldn’t have managed to reach 100 percent. 2:40 There was a board on the wall. It contained a list of people who were particularly hard- working. There you saw that worker number so and so had completed 40 thingamajigs. 2:54 Often we squatted in the cell and cried because we knew we wouldn’t make the quota the next day. 3:05 The pain told me what time it was. We had no watches or anything like that. Your entire face changed. It dissolved. It was broken. 3:20 Yes, I think we knew the stuff was sold in the west. There were rumours. 3:32 At the very bottom of the castle were windows to the confinement cells. You could hear the screaming and crying. “I want out of here, out of here. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take it anymore.” 3:45 The confinement cells were solitary. They could be completely shuttered, so that no light entered. Forget about fresh air. You saw nothing. You had to stand or squat on the floor. There was fear of mice. You had to scream if you wanted to use the toilet because the doors were locked. And you had no contact with other people, sometimes for 10 days at a time. 4:09 What we feared most in Hoheneck was the “water cell”. You entered the cell and they let the water in – cold water, up to your neck. 4:24 None of them had their periods. They stopped the day they entered Hoheneck. It was strange. 4:32 We had insane amounts of hair loss and sleeplessness. It came all at once. All of a sudden you didn’t function anymore. Not even the most normal thing. 4:55 When I detect a certain odour, when I smell the fall, I smell the very air as it was when I I was arrested. It’s always a shock. It puts me in a really bad way. Texttafeln Between 1950 and 1990 thousands of political prisoners were held in forced labour at Hoheneck, the main prison for women in the German Democratic Republic. Most of the products made by the inmates were exported to West Germany, ending up on the shelves of Aldi, Karstadt, Woolworth and other stores. The exports generated billions in revenues for the indebted East German state. Some of these retailers knew of the practice before 1989. 5:30 When they arrested me, when the men came, I told my daughter, “Finchen, I’ll be back to pick you up tonight.” I’ll never forget her eyes. Well, I never did pick her up. Credits Narrated By Birgit Willschütz Gabriele Stötzer Written By Max Mönch Alexander Lahl Directed By Volker Schlecht Alexander Lahl Design and Animation Volker Schlecht Sound Design and Music Hannes Schulze Funded By Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten Thanks Birgit Willschütz Gabriele Stötzer Tobias Wunschik Dr. Sabine Kuder Izabela Plucinska Special Thanks Kerstin Jülke A Die Kulturingenieure Production © Volker Schlecht and die Kulturingenieure 2016