How Do You Want Your Family to Remember You? - emptywheel

"The Stasi, the secret police, were legendary for their data files. Their work was based on instilling fear, and they induced stunningly amazing numbers of East Germans into informing on their neighbors. Something along the lines of 1 in 6 East Germans were informants, whether out of fear or out of approval of what the East German government was doing."

"US Lutheran leaders who knew of his plight raises a huge international stink, which ultimately led the South African regime to release him and expel him from the country, allowing him to be treated at the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The night before he was released, he told me that he prayed to die, so that he would be spared more torture the next day."

Comparisons with the Gestapo have become increasingly prevalent while other historical parallels dominate thought. A West German pastor named Eberhart had connections with East German colleagues resisting the Stasi. The Stasi maintained extensive data files, instilled fear, and induced large numbers of East Germans to inform on neighbors, roughly one in six. South African pastor T. Simon Farisani was imprisoned and tortured four times by violent South African Police, then released and expelled after international pressure and treated at the Center for Victims of Torture. A recent ICE killing in Minneapolis evokes parallels with past state violence and raises fear for clergy.

Read at emptywheel