Stasi HQ

Berlin is a city full of History. After visiting many sites connected to the Second World War and the Holocaust, five days in Berlin also allowed the group to visit more recent historical sites including Checkpoint Charlie, and the former administrative stronghold of the East German state security service - the Stasi Headquarters. Our guide at Stasi HQ was a lady who had lived in the former East Germany, and was able to draw on personal experience to explain what life was like living under a regime where your closest friends, relatives and colleagues might inform against you. Our guide told us how she had gained access to her own file and discovered that her boss for many years had informed on her. It was ‘just a small document’ she said, ‘only 20 pages.’