From ABC Brighton: Thomas Meyer-Falk has written about his first few days of freedom after serving 26 years in prison, much of the latter part under an old nazi-era preventative detention law.
How the wind rustles and the acorns fall: A few days of freedom!
On 29.08.2023, after almost 27 years of imprisonment, I was released from the high-security area of Freiburg prison with two hours notice. How does a person feel in such a situation? I would like to report on this after the first 14 days.
On 29.08.2023: The release!
At 8 a.m. I was still sitting in the visiting area of the prison with the probation officer, who might be responsible for me in the future, and we puzzled over when and if a release would take place. At 2 p.m. the time had come – I was discharged and on my way to my new place to live.
I should have been overflowing with happiness, but my focus was on the speedy handling of the move and my first official visits. Already around 3 p.m. I was at the job center and then at the health insurance company. The evening became long, ended after midnight. I got to know people in the new living environment, talked to friends on the phone and immediately started texting. The world of the 21st century had integrated me in a short time: thanks to the local group of the Rote Hilfe e.V. from Freiburg, my smartphone and laptop were ready. It felt surreal to sit on the tram and talk on the phone – just hours before I had sat in a cell with a corded phone and was only allowed to call numbers approved by the prison, and the conversations would be monitored and recorded, as it was always said in an announcement text before calls.
At 8 p.m., for the first time in 27 years, I sat together in a circle of people who voluntarily live together, who had voluntarily taken me in, and where I voluntarily went. It felt just as surreal, but really good.
The first night
The rustling of the leaves, the chirping of the crickets and the falling and hitting of the acorns on the roof, something that the residents here experience every day, was for me after 27 years each an event in itself, the stars above me, the sky. There are rarely trees in prison, the stars are outshone by the bright spotlights of the security infrastructure, everything has to be illuminated and illuminated down to the last detail. The night was short, only about 2 or 3 hours of restless sleep.
The following days
This is not meant to be an account of individual experiences that are banal and commonplace for the readership. But many more phone calls followed for me, my first beautiful personal encounters in freedom, without the usual security apparatus of a prison, excursions to the local Schloßberg or even to the nearby Münstertal. At the same time, the smartphone almost grew on my hand because calls came, appointments had to be coordinated – so that I was suddenly more on the move in a week than in the prison in several weeks. The phone calls with friends were and still are particularly good, because the sensory overload was quite pronounced.
Effect of long deprivation of liberty
Imprisonment in general, especially for a long time, has a detrimental effect on the soul and body, as a rule, people break and break over time. Resisting this takes a lot of strength and success is much better with the help of solidarity from outside. Often, even contact with the world outside the walls can give a person the determination that he might not otherwise have to persevere. The neurological-biological side should not be underestimated either: people’s brains get used to an unparalleled lack of stimulation in years and decades. Always the same walls, colours, paths, smells, people and sounds.
The “dismissal shock” is particularly pronounced after decades, because so much has changed, dealing with it adequately is a challenge that in turn drains the strength. There is new money (the euro), new technology (smartphone), you don’t just pass by offices today, but have to make an appointment via the Internet or telephone, and much more. Quite a few fail because of this. I am fortunate enough to be accompanied in a very friendly and supportive manner, to an extent that probably not many ex-prisoners are allowed to experience.
Thanks to so many people
I thank the people who have accompanied me, some of them for more than two decades, who have allowed me to walk the path with them and who have walked the path with me.
I would also like to thank the organisations that showed solidarity. The Rote Hilfe e.V. (so called: Red Aid), groups of ABC (especially ABC Brighton), gefangenen info ( “captured info”), the DreckSack (a Literary Magazine from Berlin). I would also like to thank those who have sent me reading material, letters, books over many, many years and who have also supported me financially.
And my special thanks go to those who typed my articles over and over again, because without their help I would have been doomed to be mute, because in prison I had no access to the Internet. This thanks includes those who have translated my axes and edited translations.
The coming weeks and months
There will be more meetings, events, at some point the attempt to gain a foothold at Radio Dreyeckland (https://www.rdl.de/) as an intern and Volunteer service, maybe even a visit to the cinema, finding my way into a life that will often remain just a dream for the thousands of prisoners in the FRG and millions worldwide. I keep hearing the rustling of the leaves and the falling of the acorns!
Finally in freedom!
For a world without cages and prisons!
Thomas Meyer-Falk
-Freiburg (Germany)-