CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
In a sleepy mediaeval town in the furthest corner of the Valley of the Clueless lies Malschwitz, the Stasi’s secret prison. Like the remand prison in Berlin, it is not marked on the map.
The female lieutenant in charge of the women’s section is waiting for you on the steps when you emerge blinking from the van into the glare of the searchlights. She is a woman of about fifty with a substantial bosom and thin, stick-like legs. The prisoners, you soon learn, call her the witch. “Take her to the medical room,” she says and stalks off.
The guards hand you over to two female warders, who grab you and propel you upstairs. “The prisoner will undress and lie down on the table,” the doctor says, his face a blank behind his black-framed glasses. The warders stare as you remove
