They broke you down, into a weak emotional wreck, exhausted in mind as well as body. The methods of gaining information out of those who were accused of going against the GDR was truly shocking. Even without doing a lot wrong, confessions were forced out of the innocent simply because it made more sense to admit guilt than face day after day after day without any sleep. As for everyone else, they were pretty much screwed. Of the population (around seventeen million people) as many as one in every 6.5 was either a Stasi officer or informant.
It wasn't until about a third of the way though reading Anna Funder's riveting piece of factual writing, that the true horror and brutal reality of East German repression finally sunk in.
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