The Interrogation of a Mother and Daughter

By Shabbadew2002

Email me @ shabbadew@ca.rr.com 

Berlin  June 2009

Offices of the Die Welt Abendblatt (The World Evening Paper)

The man, Otto, was 63 years of age.  The woman, Ilse, was 61.  They sat nervously in the two chairs and smoked incessantly.  They drank a lot of coffee too.  Otto had never been good looking, even in his youth.  He was heavy-set and paunchy. His hair was now thin on top and he wore it close cropped.  She had been fairly attractive, but was thickset and prone to flabbiness.  She wore her dirty blonde hair, heavily salted with gray, in a bun. 

Both had been guards in the infamous Stasi, the East German secret police. The Stasi, in the old GDR (German Democratic Republic or East Germany as it was known in the West) was one of the cruelest instruments of totalitarian rule ever devised.  These two former guards, now grandparents, had worked in the 1970s in a dingy gray building surrounded by concrete walls and topped with barbed wire - the notorious East Berlin prison. The Soviets first ran the installation following World War II.  They were the first ones to torture people there. 

The interviewer was a young journalist, Angelika Drucker.  She was a bright, attractive brunette who dressed like a college student, but had the stature and looks of a model.  Drucker had sold her editor at the paper on a series about “Stasi Torture” in the era following WWII and ending with the fall of the GDR in 1989.  Her research led to interview with guards and people who had been tortured. 

Most of the Otto and Ilse’s fellow Stasi guards had vanished into the population following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dismantling of the GDR government and the re-unification with West Germany.  A lot of records had been shredded.  Guards, like Otto and Ilse, had melted into the general population.

Angelika had to work like a bloodhound for four months to ferret them out.  Both had been living quietly.  Their closest friends didn’t know they had been Stasi guards; and had both tortured prisoners.  And it hadn’t been easy for Angelika to get these two to talk.  They had agreed to the interviews on the condition that their identities be concealed.   It was their third interview.  That day, like the first two sessions, they spent describing the daily routines and Stasi politics.  They talked about Colonel Probst and Major Nagel.  These two were the ones in charge.  Torture was under their direct control.

“Probst was an administrator, a manager,” Otto said.  “Nagel was the day-to-day boss,” he added. 

Later that session, prodded by the young reporter, they had begun to reveal the details of torture.  Otto described punishing lock-up spaces about 1.5 meters high and 30 centimeters deep, where prisoners were confined for 72 hours.

With with a smile, he said, “we would fill the cell with water, so the fisch (fish) could not sit down.”

He repeatedly referred to the detainees and inmates as fisch.  As if they weren’t human.  It had taken Angelika some time to get the couple to open up and tell her what she wanted to know.  But after the first two sessions, more negotiation and some additional considerations for the pair, they began to loosen up.  And then, by this, the 3rd session, Angelika, having offered Otto some schnapps, heard mention of the “Base Camp”, “Rooms 24” and  “29”.

Ilse’s face colored and she tried to “shush” him, but Otto, now tasting the schnapps and feeling a renewed sense of his old importance, began to talk about these rooms.  Apparently there were several rooms set up with different levels of torture in each.  A detainee or prisoner would be threatened with Room 24 and 29. On the theory that anticipation of really extreme treatment was sometimes worse than the actual torture.  The areas he mentioned were the real “third degree” torture chambers. 

Lowering her voice for dramatic effect, Ilse finally chimed in, “and...uh...then....uh.... there was the....uh... Chinese doctor.”

Otto nodded....

Angelika asked, “who was he?”

Both looked at each other and didn’t say anything.  Finally Otto spoke.

“Dr. Zhang.  From China.  He had been a gynecologist.  He was a genius at devising ways to get people to talk.”

His voice trailed off.  Angelika encouraged the couple to talk about Dr. Zhang and what went on in the special rooms.  When they started to clam up again, Angelika suggested that they tell her what had happened to one person in the rooms.  She felt she would finally get the juicy details she sought if she could get them to tell her one ‘story’.

Ilse finally said to Otto, “we should tell her about the mother and the daughter.”

“A mother and daughter,” Angelika asked excitedly?

“Yes,” Ilse said quietly.

“We will have to tell the whole story then,” Otto added. 

She looked at him, drew a breath, and said, “hmmm......uh....yeah.”

Otto began.

“It was....uh....1973, I believe....”

Mother and Daughter

He began to relate the story of how the Stasi had taken a woman and her daughter into custody for questioning.  They had been suspected of smuggling East Germans out of the country into West Germany and Czechoslovakia.  The woman’s name was Karlotte Boehm.  She was 55 at the time...a mother with three children.  Her two sons lived in West Germany.  She lived in East Berlin with her youngest child, her daughter Annemarie, a very pretty blonde college student, aged 21.

In truth, the pair had been part of a cell helping people who wanted to escape the GDR.  And both women had taken an oath not to reveal their contacts or anything about the cell and its activities.  After they had been arrested at 4am, they had been locked in individual cells, 3 meters square.  First thing Otto and Ilse did was to strip Karlotte and Annemarie and get them in prison clothes: gray pants, shirt and cotton panties.  No bra, just a cotton t-shirt. 

A single bulb burned endlessly and the two women could not tell whether it was day or night. The cell was always kept too cold or too warm. They were both locked into dog crates – just 1 x 1¼ meters square.  They only had a dirty blanket to sleep on, and a small bucket to relieve themselves.  A week went by and they were held totally incommunicado.

Colonel Probst questioned them just after their arrival and then turned them over to Major Nagel for deeper “interrogation”.  Nagel was a former Army paratrooper, a thug who surrounded himself with hard, sadistic men and women like himself.  He had recruited Otto from the police; and was only 24 when he was suspended from the force for “perversions”.  Ilse, who Nagel called “Major Meatball”, was a prison guard with a reputation for cruelty. Nagel also brought Dr. Zhang from Communist China.  His talents had first been discovered by the Soviets. 

On loan to the GDR, Zhang spoke fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, German and English.  A short, slim, sixty year old with thinning gray hair, he wore stainless steel rimmed glasses.  He was a cruel sadist who loved torturing men and women.  For women, he had developed several sure-fire torture techniques centering on their sex organs.  He derived pleasure from working a victim over or watching someone else torture a suspect. 

Otto described ‘base camp’ as a bare room illuminated by a single, harsh bulb.  The floor was concrete and there was a drain in the center of the room.  A few heavy wooden chairs and a contraption covered by a heavy canvas sat in the corner. A cabinet rested against the far wall. For their first deep interrogation, both women were made to strip.  Karlotte was a dignified, reserved brunette with blue eyes, he said... and it was a humiliation to be made to disrobe in front of them. 

She held herself taller than her actual height of 165 centimeters (5’5”).  When she was naked, Otto could see that she was still fairly attractive and full-bodied at 68 kilos (150lbs.) with wide hips, sturdy thighs, buttocks and heavy breasts (“hangers” he called them) crowned with big, dark brown nipples. 

Annemarie was a luscious morsel and Otto indicated that he got an erection as she stripped.  She was a blue-eyed blonde, 173 centimeters tall (5’8”) and 52 kilos (114 lbs.) with long legs, round cupcake buttocks and firm, perky B-cup breasts capped with large nipples and medium-sized pinkish-brown aureoles. She apparently exuded a fresh, wholesome femininity. He said her skin was velvety smooth and buttery white.  She wore her hair pulled back in a ponytail. 

The women were strapped to chairs and questioned.  Nagel and his assistants grilled them for almost 7 hours, trying to get them to tell what they knew.  Mother and daughter were questioned separately and then together.  After this session, the women were put back into in isolation in the dog crates - deprived of most sensory stimulation.  There was no view of the outside world; just the 3 meter cinder block cell.

Second Session

This session Angelika learned that Nagel led the pair down a line of inquiry to take a sharp turn in hopes of getting them to give him a small but crucial piece of information.  What the Major wanted were the names of their associates and the key stops on the “railway”: the nexus of friendly stores, homes, shops and hiding places the cell used. 

Nagel usually played the “good guy” and someone else was the “bad guy”.  He tried to trick Karlotte - keep her off balance.  During this session where, Nagel decided more “intense” methods needed to be employed.   He put the two women into a stress position: on their backs with her arms and legs in the air.  Within 30 minutes, they lost control of their limbs.  When Annemarie failed to hold a position, they beat her. 

Face slaps at first, and then punches to the stomach.  Karlotte, tougher and older, held out a little longer, but in the end she too dropped her arms and legs.  Otto held her down and Ilse slapped her face.  Then “Major Meatball”, only 23 at the time, but strongly built at 73 kilos (160lbs.) punched Karlotte five or six times in the gut, making the woman cry out.  Annemarie, seeing her mother’s reaction, began crying.

The session continued.  When this didn’t break Karlotte and she continued to resist, Otto said that Nagel knew he had to use even more extreme methods.  The older woman was still on her back on the cold floor - holding her arms and legs up straight up in the air.  She had been in that position for nearly an hour.  She was sweating, as the room was hot... her exertions were taxing her and her legs were trembling. 

Otto:  “Nagel and I were looking at her tits; and between her legs..... at her....uh...cunt.  She was very womanly.  I knew Nagel would enjoy torturing her.  He pulled up the chair and sat down.  He was stroking his chin.  He told her, ‘You’re not being cooperative.  You know what you must tell me.  And yet you resist.  Why is that?’  The mother.... she was feisty.  She said to him, ‘You can go to Hell’.  He told her, ‘Frau Boehm, this is a bad attitude.   If you let your arms or legs drop, I’m going to have my man’, he said pointing to me. ‘I’m going to have him beat your daughter on on that pretty arsch (ass) of hers with this.’ 

He held up a big wooden paddle.  The mother looked and I could tell she was getting nervous.  Despite her stoic attitude, she was stressed and getting tired.  Nagel told her that women were raped routinely in the prison.  He asked her if she was ready to see her daughter raped.”

Otto was grinning.  Angelika asked him, “did you rape the girl?”

“Yeah...but....uh...that came later.”

“I see....”

“What you gotta remember was that the mother and daughter had taken an oath ....not to talk.  We found that out later.  And in those times....and in that place...that’s what happened to such people.”

He said this in a very matter-of-fact way.  Angelika had a tape recorder taking down their remembrances.  But she also had a note pad and logged certain facts....their body postures and gestures as they testified.

Otto: “The woman had her eyes closed.  She had prepared her mind to be strong.  Since they’d been arrested, she had been steeling herself to hold out.  She was a strong woman, and in her mind, there was no way we were going to make her give up her comrades.  And while the daughter probably knew some things, the mother was the key.  We knew that.  We ended up have to doing some pretty rough things to both women.”

“Tell me more,” Angelika said.

Ilse:  “Both women...their legs were trembling.  They were sweating.  It was very hot in the room.”

Angelika pictured the poor women, naked with their legs up in the air, exposing their precious secrets.  Sweating and pale flesh jiggling in front of three cruel guards in uniform.  The image was very disturbing for her.

Ilse: “Finally - the mother’s legs gave way.  They dropped to the floor.  She was groaning. Nagel gave the word to me and Otto.  We grabbed the daughter and strung her up by her wrists to a post.  The mother was begging us not to hurt the girl, but things had gone too far by then.”

Otto:  “I dragged the mother over to a chair, cuffed and....uh... gagged her.”

“Then what?”

Otto: I came around and got behind the girl.  She was a soft, sweet pumpkin.  Very pretty.  She had her face buried behind her upper arm.  Her eyes were red from crying.”

What Otto didn’t say was that he had an erection as he got ready to beat the girl.

“I put my shoulder, arm and wrist into it. I was pretty strong in those days,” he said somewhat proudly.  “I made the paddle land on her buttocks.  I hit her hard.  Soon, her cheeks were very red.  She had welts all over. I remember she was whimpering and groaning every time I hit her.  Soon, her arse looked like 5 kilos of raw meat. 

Ilse: “The Major then let us  take a ‘smoke break’.  We’re both heavy smokers.  We lit up.  The Major said to me, ‘Use your cigarette on her tits, Major Meatball’.  He used to call me Major Meatball.”

Angelika: “Why was that?”

“Oh, a prisoner called me that.  I don’t know....the name stuck.”

Otto: “It was because you were his favorite.”

Ilse glared at Otto and said nothing.

Ilse: “We turned the girl around.  I used the tip of the cigarette to burn her ...uh....tits.  I grabbed her tit and lifted it up so I could work on the underside.  I ran a line of 1st degree burns from top to bottom on each tit.  I concentrated a lot on the aureoles.  The mother watched me as I worked.  The girl began screaming as soon as I began burning her.”

It was at this point in her interview that Angelika realized how banal but evil they both were.  Ilse’s matter-of-fact tone was even more disconcerting than the glint-in-the-eye enthusiasm that Otto displayed.  And it was sickeningly obvious that Otto had been sexually aroused by the tortures.  The look on his face, now weathered by age, could not conceal the lust and cruelty there.  Ilse’s face showed methodical efficiency, like she was a clerk processing meat in a plant.

Ilse said, “I burned her again and again. At first, hardly a sound from her. All over her tits. A touch on the top, then on the bottom.  The on the left and the right.  I alternated....getting closer and closer to her nipples, slowly, very slow... I’d touch the tip of the cigarette to a spot and then drag it in a line toward the nipple.  It took a long time but, when I was done, there were 1st degree burns all over her tits.  Finally I worked on her nipples.  Just a light touch, then a longer touch.  She screamed but wouldn’t talk.  Both she and the mother were tough.”

Otto nodded knowingly. 

“Then...uh... then what did you do,” Angelika asked?

Otto: “Nagel figured that the old woman would crack seeing her daughter get the treatment.  He wanted us to really give the daughter a going over.  He was making sure the mother watched it all.  He kept whispering to her what else we were going to do the the girl. Mentally working on the mother.  That could be very effective.  Sometimes, more effective that the physical stuff.”

Water Torture

Ilse: “So, the Major told us to give the girl an enema.  We got some water – four liters. Then we added soap, red pepper and salt.  Otto stirred it and added a bag of ice; he liked to make it cold.  This always gave them the cramps.  The girl and the mother had to watch us getting it ready.  When we got the mixture into the bag, we strapped the girl to the table.”

“What table,” Angelika asked?

“Oh, we had one of those tables that you see in a doctor’s office.  You know...they kind they put women on.  To...you know....uh...to examine them,” Otto said.

Angelika nodded, and brushed back a lock of her hair nervously.  The tale was getting downright stomach-turning.

Ilse continued, “We put her legs in the stirrups, strapped her in and greased up a big bulb nozzle on a colon tube we used.   Then, I got it ....and I wasn’t gentle.... into her...uh... asshole.  She moaned when I made the bulb open her up.  When it was in nice and deep, Otto opened the clip.  She was quiet as the stuff flowed into her but....uh....then the cramps hit. We made her take it all.  We filled her up good - and it made her stomach swell.  She looked pregnant. Pumping them full of cold water gave them the worst cramps.  It was like menstrual cramps only ten times worse.  The pepper burned too...

Otto and I squeezed the bag to make it hit her harder.  This made her suddenly jerk and thrash around.  The Major asked her to talk again, but she just lay there and moaned.  When the bag was empty we let her lay there for a bit.  I took the nozzle out and we plugged her up and got her off the table. Then we made her walk around.  We made her bend over, do deep-knee bends......stuff like that..... to put pressure on her stomach.  She was in agony.  We kept making her walk around, bend over, pick up stuff.  Anything to make it hurt more.”

“Then what,” Angelika asked?

Otto scratched his head.  “What did we do then, Ilse,” he asked?

Ilse: “The girl was shuffling around holding her stomach.  Then we took turns hitting her in the belly.  Otto hit her in the stomach hard and I did too.  Every time we hit her...she screamed.  We hit her a lot.”

“How many times do you think you hit her,” Angelika asked?

“Oh.....I don’t know.  What would you say, Otto?”

“Hmmm....maybe a dozen times....I think,” he answered.

Ilse:  “She was groaning all the time.  And then screaming when we hit her. A few more belly punches and she was ready for the toilet.  Oh, Otto liked to do something to a woman when their belly was full.  He grabbed her belly and SHOOK it hard.  That always hurt.  The girl screamed when he did that.  He gave her the “shakes” over and over. Then we punched her in the stomach until she vomited.”

Otto had all he could do to conceal a smile at this recollection.  He had a lump in his baggy trousers.  Angelika had all she could do to continue.  She felt like hitting him with something and then tossing him out.  But, this was the story she wanted.....and she knew she had to grin and bear it.

Ilse: “Then we took her to the toilet ....and she had a real good shit.  She was real embarrassed when her turds hit the water.  We stayed with her,  slapping her tits and face while she emptied out.  It took almost a half an hour.... but...uh.... finally she was empty and the Major ended the session.”

Angelika looked at the two in disbelief.  It seemed like the more Ilse recalled, the more the deep hatred she felt for her victims emerged.  And, it seemed that all of this aroused Otto.  They were a monstrous pair.  They had stepped back in time to a place where they exercised their sadistic cruelty with no restrictions.  They both looked like grandparents, but the look on their faces as they told their tale gave them away.  They were monsters...

“What was her mother doing? While you were torturing the daughter,” Angelika asked? 

Ilse poured herself more coffee and lit another filter-tipped cigarette. 

Blowing smoke, she said, “The old lady was cuffed to a chair. The Major stayed with her trying to get her to talk.  But, she was tough and just sucked it up. 

Third Session

Otto: “Nagel questioned them and nothing.  He had us string them up by their wrists to a rafter.  He wanted them tied face-to-face and belly-to-belly.  After we did, he told us to beat them both with the paddles.”

Ilse: “We beat them until they were screaming.  Their asses were raw when we were done.  Then the Major wanted us to hang them next to each other, so we did.”

“What then,” asked Angelika?

Otto: “We got a bottle of hand lotion....a gel....it was...uh... mostly water.  We squirted it all over the women from their tits to their knees.  Front and back.  Then we took cattle prods and worked them over.  Giving them shocks everywhere.”

Ilse: “We concentrated mostly on their buttocks, tits, belly, and crotch.  When we were done, they were covered with marks everywhere.”

Otto: “The prods had two aluminum prongs at the end.  This is what left the marks.”  It made them jump around when we zapped them.  They groaned a lot, but took it pretty well.  Nagel told us to get more of the gel on their assholes and cunts.  Then we shocked them there.  The daughter passed out.  Neither one talked.  Nagel was pissed.  What we did next.....OH...uh....We both raped her.  Ilse used a rubber truncheon on her.  I made her take meine schwanz (my cock). She actually had an orgasm, I think.”

“How did the mother react,” asked Angelika?

Ilse:  “She did begin to cry when Otto raped the girl.  But she didn’t talk.  And that meant that meant more pressure.  The Major let in some of the other guards and they took turns raping the girl.  They raped her in the normal way at first.  Then, they started taking turns in her arsch too.  They made it hurt as much as possible. 

She tried to resist, but the more she did that, the more it hurt, and ...uh....in the end, she could only let the muscles in her arsch go slack - and let them do what they wanted to her.  They fucked her front and back. They took her from behind with her upper body on the table and on her back.  Some were gentle and some were rough.  Especially the younger ones.

Her genitals and anus became so sloppy with semen that they took to wiping her crotch after each rape.  They used her...uh... panties and before long they were soaking wet.  You know.... with semen and her vaginal fluids.  That’s when Otto stuffed them in her mouth.” 

Angelika: “Otto, how many times was the girl raped and sodomized?”

“Oh, I would say about 15 or 20 times. I’m...uh....not sure.”

“How many times did you rape her,” she asked?

“Uh.....Twice.  Once in the front... and...uh... once in the back.”

“I see.  So you raped and....uh... then you sodomized her?”

“JA. JA! (YES. YES!).”

Otto was getting a little annoyed.......and the reporter wisely backed off.

Otto then piped up, “The mother almost broke then.  When our comrades were putting it to her good, the mother was sobbing like a baby.  She almost gave it up then.”

Angelika needed a break from this horror movie.

“Look....let’s take a break.  They’re bringing in something for us to eat.  We’ll take it up after we have a bite,” she said standing up.

In truth, the young reporter was revolted.  She felt like she was supping with serial killers, Nazis or worse.  They way the two old guards talked about the torture of a young woman gave her the creeps.  After lunch, which she ate by herself, she got the tape recorder going again.

Angelika began, “after the girl was raped, what happened next?”

Otto chimed in, “oh....then we began on the mother.”

Ilse said, “Yeah.... we took the mother and .....”

Angelika’s face had gone white.  She was afraid she was going to pass out.  The details were so nauseating.  She thought she had prepared herself, but now....with the tape spinning...and the story unfolding....there was nothing she could do except sit there and listen to these tales of horror.  Otto was nice and warmed up now.

Otto cut in: “We put her on the table and forced a tube thru her nose down into her stomach.  You worked a 60 centimeter (24”) colon tube up her arsch.  We pumped her stomach and her guts full of salt water. I don’t know....We made her take 6 or 7 liters.  It made her swell up like a balloon.  When we were done, she looked 6 months pregnant. We plugged her up and made her walk around.  Then I gave her the belly shake.  I grabbed her swollen belly and shook her good. Then Ilse and I punched her in the stomach until she vomited and shit herself.”

Ilse, recalling the details said, “Yeah, but that didn’t happen right away.  After an hour she had not vomited so you said it was time to make her expel it.  But first, we each took hold of her belly and gave it a huge SHAKE back and forth and up and down. I remember that we could hear all the fluid sloshing around inside her. 

We kept it up for several minutes while she stood and screamed. Then we led her into the toilet.  She was a proud bitch and stood up real erect and proud.  She was defying us.  Then we both began to punch her hard in the belly until she vomited....uh.... a huge amount....a huge amount of water! It took about 15 minutes of beating her to get her belly flat again.  We hit her again and again and the water came up.  At that point, it was time to pull the plug and let her shit finally.  But, she still didn’t talk...”

A small smile finally played around the corners of Ilse’s mouth as she recalled the details of the torture she’d inflicted on a helpless victim 36 years earlier. Angelika wondered if this woman had any grandchildren and what they thought of her. 

“The last thing we did to the mother, I remember....uh...was...uh...we worked on her tits,” Major Meatball said.

Ilse warmed to task of getting out all the gory details, “We tied her to one of the posts.  I used a pliers on her nipples first.  I pinched and pulled them.  I grabbed a nipple and gave her saggy tit a shake.  After that, we lit up and used the cigarettes on her tits.  Starting underneath.  A touch on the bottom of her tits, then on the outside, then the top... We took turns. And went in circles.  We kept getting closer and closer to her nipples. Sometimes, I’d burn her on a spot and....uh..... then I’d drag it toward her nipple.  We really worked on the aureoles. 

It took a long time to cover them with burns.  Finally we hit her nipples.  Just a light touch, then a longer touch.  One second, two seconds...you know.  Just a 1st degree burn.  Like I said, if you hold the cigarette right on a woman’s nipple longer, it usually breaks them.  She screamed her head off,  but wouldn’t talk.  She was a tough one.  Finally the Major called a halt.

Fourth Session – Room 24

Otto: “The next session, we brought the two women to Room 24.”

Angelika: “What was Room 24?”

Otto: “That room ....well....that room belonged to Dr. Zhang.  He had one of those tables ...you know....a doctor’s table... in there too. He had a dentist chair in there too.  He used to......uh...drill the teeth,” Otto said. “There was an overhead lamp and a tray, just like a dentist’s office. He’d been a doctor....a gynecologist... in ...uh......China.”

“He would drill someone’s teeth to get a confession,” asked Angelika?

Otto: “Oh, yeah.....”

“Oh God.  Tell me what happened.”

Ilse interrupted, “Zhang wasn’t his real name.  I forget what it was.  I knew it back then, but in front of the fisch everyone called him ‘Dr. Zhang’.” The Major introduced him. And then he ran the show from there.  Doctor Zhang....he was older.  A short, thin older man.  With those glasses he wore ....I don’t know....he looked a little like.....uh.....you know.....uh..... one of those atomic scientists you see in the movies.”

Otto:  “Zhang had an accent, but his German was good; and the way he talked....well....it frightened the fisch.  The fact that he was Chinese ....well that worked to his advantage too.  The reputation of the...uh...Orientals for torture is famous.....No?

We would strap the fisch into the dentist chair....usually naked. The straps went around the head....uh.... the waist...the wrists and the ankles.  Zhang put a thing in their mouth to hold it open.  Then...uh.........he would select one of their teeth.  And he would drill until he got to the nerve. 

Then...uh..... he used a dental pick to work on the nerve.   It was pretty effective.  Afterwards, he filled in the cavity.  But...if the tooth was dead....  If he killed the nerve, he...uh...he pulled the tooth out.  He had to, because the dead tooth would get infected.... and....uh...it would have to come out later anyway.”

“Did Zhang put the girl in the dentist’s chair?”

“No....no.....the mother....” 

Angelika mopped her brow with a paper napkin.  She knew she had them on a roll; and needed to keep them going.  This had been the most productive interview session yet.  It was strong stuff and would make for a dynamite article, but interviewing them was emotionally exhausting for her.

“Tell me what happened,” Angelika said.

Ilse: “Major Nagel decided to have Dr. Zhang work on the mother.  He wanted to put pressure the girl emotionally.  He told her.... you just watch.  If you want me to stop, all you have to do is....uh.... tell me who you worked with.  He was telling her that we’re going to do this to you mother as long as you don’t talk to us.”

Otto: “We made both of them take off their clothes.  Then we bound the girl in a chair next to the...uh.... dentist’s chair.”

Ilse:  We put the mother in the dentist’s chair.  We strapped her wrists...... ankles and around her waist.  Then we strapped her head so she couldn’t move.   There was a tray on her left with dental tools.  The Doctor was wearing a surgical mask.  Uh....he reached for the drill; and ran it so she could hear it.”

He used a Jennings mouth gag and pinched her nostrils.  This forced her to open her mouth.  And then he worked the gag into her mouth; and cranked it so that her mouth was opened wide.  .”

Otto: “He used the pick to tap her back teeth. He found one with no filings.  Nagel asked the girl if she was ready to talk.  She nodded her head ‘no’.  Zhang lined up the drill with the tooth, pressed the pedal with his foot and the drill began make that sound. You know....the sound it makes when it’s drilling the tooth.”

Ilse: “The mother lurched against the straps and she....uh.....began to make noises.  The Doctor pressed the drill harder, I remember, and the sound changed as made went deeper into the hole he was drilling in her tooth.  The mother began wailing and screaming.  She sweated so much that her armpits were dripping.  Her screams got louder as he got closer to the nerve.”

Angelika, “what happened next?” 

Otto: “She began crying out, but you couldn’t understand her.  The daughter was crying.  The mother was pushing against the straps.  The sound of the drill and her screams – that’s I remember.”

Ilse: “Then he put the drill down and picked up sharp pick.  He put the tip in the hole he had just drilled and began to work it around.  He tapped the spot....and he used the pick to probe it. The sounds coming from the mother’s mouth.... Well, you can just imagine!”

Otto: “Nagel said to the girl, ‘tell me names. And he’ll stop.  Just tell me’. But the girl didn’t talk.  Nagel got very sore.  He started yelling at her, ‘you’re doing this to your mother. You can make it stop’.  That type of thing.”

Ilse: “The mother held out. And the girl wouldn’t give in. So, Dr. Zhang went back to work. More screams....and then she passed out.  He waited a minute and then popped a capsule underneath her nose to...uh... resuscitate her.  Then he went back to working the exposed nerve.  When she passed out again, he revived her again.  He announced, ‘I’m going to work on another tooth’.  He filled the cavity and started on a fresh tooth.”

Otto: “He held up the drill and told this to the girl.  He worked on another tooth.  Once again the drilling, the screaming...and the crying. After he worked on the nerve in this second tooth for awhile....he...uh.. he filled the cavity.”

Ilse: “The mother pissed herself.  For the rest of the session, the Doctor drilled two more of her teeth.  She passed out several times, but in the end, she managed to hold out.  And the daughter didn’t betray her mother.  It was amazing.  The Major was getting very frustrated with these two, I can tell you. Those two.... we found out later, had taken an oath.”

Fifth Session – Room 24

Otto: “The next day, Nagel had us bring the two women back to Room 24.  We strapped the mother to a chair and gagged her.  Then Zhang told her what he was going to do to the daughter.”

Angelika leaned forward unconsciously.  “And.....uh.....what did Zhang do this time,” she asked on the edge of her seat?

Ilse: “Doctor Zhang had come up with.......uh....a procedure.   He called it..........uh.....the ‘balloon’.  When we got there, the Major wanted us to strip the girl and get her on the table with her legs in the stirrups.  We got her legs apart so wide it hurt.  

Otto chimed in, “We gagged the mother.  Then Zhang used some really long swabs on the girl.  They were for reaching into really tight spots.  He soaked the swabs in rubbing alcohol.  He used them on her pisshole.  He got them way up there. 

After that, he gave the women a demonstration of the balloons.  They were at the end of a long rubber tube .....connected to an air compressor.  I think the balloons had a steel mesh core.  There were two balloons separated by a neck.  He inflated the first balloon.  And it got as big as a grapefruit.  He told them this was gonna go in the girl’s bladder.  Then, he inflated the second balloon.  This was smaller and shaped like a sausage.  When it was fully inflated, he told the girl this was gonna go up her piss tube.

The girl....her eyes almost popped out of her head.  The demonstration had a big effect on her.  I could see this scared her.  The mother began to cry.  Well, anyway...the compressor had two dials. So, he could inflate the balloons separately.  He greased them and inserted them into the girl. It was nasty going in and she squirmed and squealed.  Then, he inflated the first balloon.  He hips came up like she was trying to hump the ceiling.  He was a woman’s doctor and...uh...knew a woman’s body.”

Ilse interrupted: “The Doctor was a genius...an inventor.  The balloon was one of the most effective tools he ever devised to make a woman talk.  He inflated the first one slowly.  But he kept inflating it so that it filled her whole bladder and then some.  The trick was to get the the balloon as big as it could get without rupturing the bladder.  If that happened, the next stop was surgery.  

Like Otto said, she came up off the table even though she was strapped in. That thing produced the worst cramps. Like she had to piss something terrible and couldn’t.  The balloon stretched her bladder so much you could see the bulge above her pubic area.  It was unbelievable.  She was groaning real loud, at that point...Then, he inflated the second balloon.  And she started screaming and kept screaming.  Most of that balloon was in her urethra, but some of it stuck out.” 

Angelika felt butterflies in her stomach as she tried to imagine what this would have felt like.  The thought of this being done to a helpless woman made her sick to her stomach.  She looked at Otto and was totally repulsed.  He looked like he was transported....ecstatic.  His face was all lit up and it was obvious that he was aroused at the memory.

Ilse: “They had a system.  He and the Major worked as a team.  The Major questioned her and when she didn’t talk, he nodded to Dr. Zhang who turned the dial and inflated the second balloon a little. That made her scream. Then he’d deflate it a little.  And the Major would try again to get her to talk. 

And when she didn’t, the Doctor inflated the balloon again.  He kept the first balloon inflated....to give her a constant pain.  He used the second balloon to stretch her tight hole.... Well.....there are so many nerves in that part of a woman’s body....If you know what I mean,” she said to Angelika.

She continued, “After a couple of times, he got the second balloon inflated as big as it could get.  Like Otto said, it was a big as a sausage.....When he did that, we had to hold her down.  She was thrashing around so much.... even though she was strapped in.  She howled like an animal in a trap.  She almost passed out.  She had a very tight hole.   She was screaming and begging God to kill her. The mother was crying and begging the daughter to hold on.”

Ilse looked over at Angelika.  She saw the revulsion and horror in her face and stopped.  Angelika was disgusted.  She couldn’t believe the matter-of-fact way that Major Meatball recounted the details.  It was as if she was describing something that happened with the plumbing in her bathroom.  The way she talked about Dr. Zhang’s ‘procedures’ gave her the creeps!

“That’s not what broke the girl,” Otto declared.  “After Zhang got those balloons inside her, she began screaming, ‘OH God.....please stop.....please take it out’.  When inflated the second balloon all the way, she was so stretched open, I could have gotten meine schwanz in there!  But that’s not what pushed her over the edge.  There were two copper buttons mounted flush on opposite sides of the balloons. They were wired...  After Zhang had gotten the second balloon as big as it was gonna get....and the girl didn’t break.....he told us to let go of her and back off. 

I was holding her down with Ilse.  Zhang picked up a little black box.  That was the electronic controller.  When he started zapping the girl...the sounds that came out of her mouth were unlike anything I’d ever heard from a human being before that.  Her body arched up like a bow against the straps.

Then she passed out.  Zhang threw water on her face and slapped her awake.  Nagel went back to questioning her.  When she clammed up, he pointed to Zhang holding the little black box.  He told her that she was going to ‘ride the lighting’ again if she didn’t talk.” 

Otto nodded at the memory.  He had masturbated a hundred times fantasizing about watching Zhang use the “balloon” on hapless, attractive women like Annemarie.  The poor young woman, who had suffered so much, was no more than a puppet on the table.  She had been reduced to a numb, twitching, screaming automaton.  It was inevitable that the Stasi torturers would have broken her eventually.

“The pain had been too much.  She talked.  She gave it up.  Her mother was so exhausted that she just hung her head.  The girl was broken at that point.  Everyone could see that.  Nagel had another officer come in and pump her for names and addresses. The mother....Well, that now that the daughter had broken, it was going to be difficult to get the mother to talk.  We had lost the leverage of her mother love.  To get her to talk, Nagel held a meeting with us to discuss what to do next,” asserted Otto.

“Tell me about that,” Angelika asked?

Sixth Session – Base Camp

Otto: “Nagel took the mother back to ‘base camp’. It’s like we were gonna start all over with her.  He gave us permission to rape her.”

Angelika: “Did you participate, Ilse?”

The grandmotherly former guard lowered her eyes and said quietly, “yes.”

Otto: “We brought her to the room and stripped her.  Ilse’s job was to warm her up.”

Ilse: “I used my hands on her. They held her and I played with her tits. And her cunt.  I got her steamed up.  I masturbated her.”

Otto: “She was very proud.  When Ilse did that to her, she was very ashamed.  A woman knows how to do that to another woman.  And Ilse made her squirt,” he chuckled.

“What then,” asked Angelika?

Otto: “We lined up.  We drew numbers.  We got her on a cot and I got to go first.  We got the fisch on her back and someone held her hands.  I fucked her and then everyone took a turn.  We turned her over and then fucked her in the arsch.”

Angelika: “And did you do anything, Ilse?”

“I used a rubber truncheon.”

“I see.”

“Was the daughter present?”

“No....they were pumping her for information.  We focused on the mother.”

“How many men raped her?”

“OH, I don’t know,” said Otto.

“How many.....10....20?”

“I would say 15,” he answered.

“Then what?”

“Well, after we’d all taken a turn or two, Nagel told us to use the ‘spice’ on her.  And then give her a ‘sweat sock surprise’,” said Otto.

“What was that?”

“We used pepper spray.  It was in a canister.  Someone sprayed her in the face.....then we held her down and spread her legs open and used the spray on her crotch.  Then we turned her over.... spread her cheeks and squirted some on her asshole too.”

“Oh God, that sounds awful.  What did she do,” Angelika asked?

Otto: “We left her on the floor.  She couldn’t get up.  She was rolling around and moaning.”

The capsicum in the spray caused intense burning and itching in the woman’s nose, mouth, vagina and anus.  It made all the mucous membranes swell up horribly.  Karlotte was completely incapacitated and was unable to see or walk.

“Then what?”

“After awhile, we picked her up and gave her a beating.” 

“With what?  Your fists?”

Otto: “Oh no....we filled some sweat socks with wet sand.  We used to call that the ‘sweat sock surprise’.”

“And you beat her with those?  Where?”

“UH....first...on all the fleshy areas:  the buttocks, the thighs, the tits and the belly.  We beat her pretty good.  The socks don’t leave marks  - so they were good for the interrogations,” said Otto. “Then we made her kneel and one of us held her arms.  I got in front of her and hit her on the temples.  First on one side and then the other.  After a couple of those, she became semi-conscious.  She was in shock.”

Ilse: “Major Nagel was angry at her.  He wanted to punish her for defying him.   And then we gave her a ‘flush’.”

“What was that?”

Ilse: “We used a hose and washed her face.  Stuck it in her mouth and forced water up her nose.  Then we used it like a douche` and shoved it up her fotze (cunt). After that, it went in her arsch (ass).  We filled her up.  When she begged for relief, I took her to the toilet.  Otto and I hit her in the stomach until she vomited and then we let her shit.  It took awhile.”

“Did any of this make her talk,” Angelika asked?

Ilse: “No....still nothing.”

“She was one stubborn zicke (bitch).  So, that’s when Nagel decided to send her to Room 29,” Otto said.

Room 29

Ilse: “Room 29 was the last stop for a woman.  It was where Doctor Zhang employed the most extreme procedure he had invented.  He had come up with a special formula he could inject into the human body.”

Otto: “It was a concoction of Japanese seaweed and some plastic stuff.....polymers, I think.  And when it combined with bodily fluids.....it would expand and grow.  He used it to make a woman pregnant.  He would inject the stuff into her womb and...uh.....it grew and hardened.  Within a few hours she would look like she was nine months pregnant.  And she was....for all intents and purposes.”

“And then.....uh....he would force delivery,” asked Angelika, now truly sick to her stomach?

“That’s it.  Exactly,” said Ilse.

It was a monstrous thing.  Angelika had never heard anything like it.  For a moment she doubted that such a thing was possible.  But, prodding the couple, she soon had all the gory details.

Ilse: “We strapped the mother naked to the gynecological table, with her feet in the...uh....the stirrups.  We cranked the table up so that she was sitting at a forty-five degree angle.  She was trembling and...uh..... sweating.”

Otto: “She was terrified after what we’d done to her daughter.  Nagel built Room 29 up.  He told her that this was the most extreme thing yet.  That what would be done to her there was 10 times worse than what they’d done to her or her daughter.  And when we brought her to Room 29, she was really afraid....I could tell.   The whole set-up was like a hospital room.  A delivery room.”

Ilse: “Dr. Zhang tortured her mentally first.  He described the whole process as he swabbed her genitals with rubbing alcohol. Then he took a speculum, lubricated it and got it in her vagina.  He twisted the handle and made her open up like a flower.  He hung an IV filled with saline.  Then, he brought out a syringe with a long, thick needle on the end.  The syringe was glass and...uh.... it had a plunger.  It was filled with green, gooey stuff.” 

Otto: “I remember he said, ‘this is instant baby.  It’s made from seaweed and liquid plastic.  It absorbs twenty times its weight in liquid.  When it comes in contact with anything wet inside your body it swells and expands.   When I inject this into your womb and add saline solution, the mixture will grow inside you.  It tricks your body into thinking its pregnant.  And I’ll give you saline intravenously to increase the fluid you’d add during pregnancy’.  

Doctor Zhang told the terrified woman that told her that when the mixture stopped expanding ...it hardened.  At that point it would be the size and weight of a baby and the placenta: about four kilos.  He told her that the pregnancy part would take about three hours.  That she’d experience all the aches and pains of a real pregnancy – only in three hours. 

He told her he was going to impregnate her with twins;  that she’d gain 20 kilos.  That even her breasts would grow because her body would think she was pregnant.  He said that after three hours, the two fetuses would be the size and shape of a large squashes. 

He went on to tell her that when they were full-term, he would induce labor.  He’d give her an injection of drugs and hormones.  It would make her begin contractions.  After labor.... many hours of labor.....she’d give birth to big, green squash babies.

Otto:  “The woman was in shock, you could tell.   Zhang beat her up with all the gory details.  He mentally tortured her.”

Otto laughed at this.  Angelika ignored it.  It was all so hideous.

The old guard went on: “He told her it would be a natural childbirth.  No drugs.  And she was going to have ‘twins’.  Nagel told her that if she talked, she get drugs.  She told him to go to hell. ‘Well, get ready to be a mother again’, I remember he told her.”

Ilse: “Dr. Zhang dilated her cervix with rods. When her cervix was open enough he got the syringe lined up and worked the needle in so that it was all the way in her uterus.  She was trying to stay calm.  But when he began stretching her cervix and when he put the needle in, she went wild.  She howled and yelled so loud that we had to gag her.”

Doctor Zhang pushed the plunger and forced the green stuff into her womb.  He took the needle out and worked a catheter into her uterus.  Then he attached the drip tube.  He filled her with saline.  He waited 10 minutes; then pulled out the drip tube and brought over the syringe.  He’d filled it up again with his magic formula.  This was for the second fetus.  Giving the first one a little time to set allowed him to add a second load which would form and harden into a second fetus.  So, she would have ‘twins’.

Ilse: “When the Doctor took out the needle and got the drip tube back in her again, Major Nagel came over and...uh....he patted her belly.  After more saline in her womb, Dr. Zhang removed the catheter and left the speculum in her vagina.   He hooked up another IV bottle to a needle.  He  stuck that needle into a vein in her right arm.  This bottle was much bigger.  He eventually pumped 3 or 4 liters of saline into her.”

Otto: “There was a clock on the wall.  She wasn’t screaming then.  Nagel pointed to the clock and told her that every minute that went by, the ‘babies’ were growing inside her.  It was there to let her know how time was working against her.  Within twenty minutes, she was groaning and sick to her stomach.  She kept looking down at her belly to see if it was growing.  At first, there was nothing showing, but after an hour, her stomach began to stick out.”

Ilse: “Something that nature would do in nine months was forced on her in a few hours.  It put pressure on all her organs.  Her bladder, kidneys, her stomach and her bowels.  I remember that she kept moaning like a sick calf. The clock kept ticking.....each minute added to her suffering.  Soon, there was no doubt she was pregnant.  Her belly had begun to stick out.  She was mumbling.... into the...uh... gag.  I guess she was begging Dr. Zhang to take it out of her.  The Major told her if nodded ‘yes’, they would stop.  Every time he tried that, she seemed to gather herself together.  Get stronger.  But, time was working against her.”

Otto: “As it got to 2 hours - she looked six months pregnant.”

Ilse: “I also remember that her breasts began to swell too.  They got bigger. Dr. Zhang pulled and pinched her nipples.  They had puffed up and gotten darker too.”

Giving Birth

Otto:  “Her belly was grotesque.  It was so swollen.”

Angelika asked, “At that point, the thing inside her had finished growing?”

Ilse answered, “Yeah, it was full grown by then.  Dr. Zhang removed the IV at that point.  She didn’t need any more fluid.  She looked nine months pregnant.  It looked like she had swallowed a torpedo that was....uh.... lying front-to-back in her stomach.  She was groaning and.......having cramps.  She pulled against the straps holding her.  She just kept moaning and moaning.”

At that point, the poor woman was suffering the fate of the damned.  She’d been forcibly impregnated. Now, the awful process of labor would begin...

Otto:  “At that point, all we did was just watch her.  She would wriggle or hump her hips up and down, trying to get rid of the cramps.  Her huge belly would flop this way and that.”

Finally, the Doctor gave her a shot.  It was a mixture of drugs and hormones.  Within ten minutes she began hyperventilating. Within thirty minutes, her contractions started.  Before long they were 5 to 8 minutes apart.  The Doctor looked into her vagina.  He wanted to see how dilated she was.  ‘About 5 centimeters’, he told the group. ‘When she gets to 10 centimeters, she’ll start to push it out’, he said.

Otto: “She was having regular contractions...and sweating like a pig.  She pulled on the straps holding her, but it was no use.  As her cervix dilated and the uh....contractions got worse, the pain made her scream and howl like a lunatic.   The Doctor pulled up a stool to sit beside her.  He wanted to monitor her contractions.”

Each ‘baby’ was somewhat different size and shape, depending on the inside of a woman’s uterus and how her body reacted to the material.  Some of the ‘babies’ were smaller and were shaped like a pear.  And some were as big as a squash.  All of them did damage to a woman’s vagina.  Some women had small tears inside.  Some had their vaginas torn. 

Ilse: “The Doctor took out the speculum.  All us guards just waited for her to give birth.  Major Nagel kept talking to her.  He took the gag out.  She begged God at one point...to ...you know...uh... kill her.  It took about an hour...the labor.  Her body wanted to get rid of the thing that had grown inside her.”

Otto: “Zhang told her to push. He told her, ‘if want to give birth, you need to push’.  The expressions on her face.....I remember it looked like she was trying to shit a brick and it wouldn’t come out.”

Ilse: “She bore down..... and pushed..... and pushed....and pushed.  Her face showed the strain.  It hurt so much.... she blacked out twice.  After nearly two hours, the ‘crown’ was visible.  It went on for another 15 minutes before the ‘baby’ began to come out.  The Major kept talking to her.  He showed her a hypodermic needle and said, ‘talk and I’ll give you the drugs’.  All she had to do was talk.  She kept crying and begging God to save her. Or kill her.”

Angelika asked, “how did it end?”

Ilse: “She gave birth to the smaller ‘baby’ first.  It was shaped like a big pear.  The big end came out first.  It really stretched her vagina.  The thing was....uh....greenish-brown.  As it stretched her open, she screamed and howled.  I wanted to gag her again, but Major Nagel wanted her to talk.”

Otto: “Nagel kept waving the hypodermic needle in her face. As that was going on, Zhang put mirror up so she could see her how much her cunt had been stretched open and watch the ‘baby’ come out of her.  I think he did that to fuck with her mind.  Seeing that big thing coming out of her body just messed up her mind.  I’m sure of it.   Seeing that and the pain really weakened her. 

Ilse:  “As the thickest part was struggling to come out of her, she was screaming, ‘GOD....KILL ME....PLEASE KILL ME.  I WANT TO DIE.  KILL ME.’  Finally, she gave birth.  She had a little breather at that point.  And then.....the whole thing started over.  It took another half hour before the second baby ‘crowned’.  This was the bigger one.  But the small end came out first.  I watched the tip of it pushing her open.  She was grunting and groaning like crazy again.  And yelling..... as she tried to push it out.

Then, with the contractions and her pushing....more of it came out.  It tore her vagina.  She began to bleed.  After too much time had passed the Doctor had to grab it with forceps.  He had to pull on it - if it was gonna come out.  As he struggled with it and it seemed like it was never gonna come out, she cracked.  She finally broke.

She was out of her mind at that point.  As Zhang pulled on it, it was apparent that it was stuck.  And she couldn’t take it any more.  She screamed over and over, ‘I’ll tell you everything.  I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING.  Give me the drugs. GIVE ME THE DRUGS’. 

Otto: “The Major really put her through hell though before she got the shot.  He made her say that they should do it to her daughter instead.  It was only when she said, ‘do it to my daughter’, that the Major let Dr. Zhang give her a shot.”

Ilse: “She spilled her guts after she got the shot.  Names and places began pouring out of her.  The Major had me scribble it all down.  She gave him the info she’d been holding.  She’d suffered for it ....real stoic.  But, she had been forced to give it up.  I think she felt real humiliation she wasn’t able to hold it together.  She was real proud. In the end...she was just...a mess.  A sweaty, bleeding, screaming sack of meat.  Begging....like a child.  And betraying her daughter too.  She was emotionally devastated..... humiliated and broken.”

As the drugs went to work, the torturers still forced her to watch the ‘birth’.  The Doctor pulled on the fetus, which was stuck, and told her, ‘Push.  Push’, he kept telling her.  As this one began to pass out of her cervix and down and out of her vagina, the two guards watched the huge thing being born. It was dark green and yellow.  It looked to everyone like a huge butternut squash. 

Otto: “The drugs took hold and she quieted down some.  But then, after the second one popped out.... Zhang had to go in again to get some loose material.”

What had happened was that there was some material left in her uterus. And it ended up blocking the cervix.  Zhang had to work a dilator into her to see if he could get it out of the way.  When that didn’t work, after poking around, he used a high pressure hose with saline to force it out. 

Ilse:  “There was some ‘crumbs’ or small pieces left inside her womb. He called it the ‘afterbirth’.  The Doctor got it out, but what he did ....hurt her so bad, he had to give her another shot of morphine.  He stitched her up after that.”

Otto: “She had been torn.....  The next day when the drugs wore off and she woke up, her cunt showed what she had been through.  She wasn’t able to walk for days.  She kept giving Nagel everything he wanted.  He only had to threaten her with another pregnancy.  She didn’t want any more of that.”

“How big were they,” Angelika asked?

Ilse: “Oh.... the pear was smaller. About the size of a grapefruit. The bigger one was huge.  I don’t know what they weighed.”

The first ‘baby’, pear-shaped, was 30 centimeters long (11¾”) and 25 centimeters around (10”) at the widest part.  It weighed 2.5 kilos (5½ lbs.).  The second one was 50 centimeters long (19¾”); and 38 centimeters around (15”) at the widest part.  It weighed 4.5 kilograms (10 lbs.).  After Karlotte Boehm gave birth, her breasts began to lactate.  The ‘pregnancy’ had tricked her breasts into producing milk.

Ilse: “The Doctor had a twisted sense of humor too.  After she’d given birth....He presented the ‘babies’ to her.  Both of them. ‘Here are your babies’, he said to her.  Then, he laid them down next to her on the table.  I remember they were really sticky with blood, mucus and green stuff.  Pretty disgusting.”

Angelika had been fighting nausea for an hour.  She struggled to get it all down on tape.  It had been a grueling experience.  The story of the two women was the highlight of the article on Stasi torture in the old GDR; and she won a journalistic award a year after the series appeared in the newspaper. 

Epilog

Karlotte Boehm and her daughter, Annemarie, spent five years in prison.  Part of their “re-education”.  Karlotte lived on in Berlin until 2000 when she died of a stroke.  Annemarie eventually became a teacher and in 1994 emigrated to Australia.  The whereabouts of Colonel Probst, Major Nagel and Dr. Zhang are unknown. 

Otto and Ilse live in the suburbs of Berlin.  He’s a part-time security guard; and she’s a retired homemaker.  Angelika Drucker is a well-respected journalist who lives in Bonn and teaches occasional classes in journalism.  She’s also a member of Amnesty International and lectures on the problem of political torture in the modern world.

©2011 Shabbadew2002.  All rights reserved.