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Ex-secret Police Gag On Bad JokesIT IS tough being a former Stasi secret policeman in the reunified Germany. The 1500-member Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support in Berlin, set up to support them, says the secret servants of the former communist East Germany, along with judges, border policemen and others in the immense security apparatus, are as discriminated against as Gypsies. Recently they wrote to a TV show complaining of gags against them, such as: Stasi officer to pedestrian: "What do you feel about the political situation?" Pedestrian: "Hmmm … Im thinking." Stasi officer: "Thats enough — youre under arrest." "This is an example of the discrimination we have to put up with," said Hans-Herbert Nehmer, one of the groups founders. The Stasi has rarely been out of the headlines since Germanys reunification. Recently, a film called The Lives of Others, in which a Stasi eavesdropper finds his humanity in the lives of the people he snoops on, won an Oscar. It is impossible for former high-ranking Stasi operatives to get a government job, nor can they easily find work elsewhere in a land where to accuse someone of "acting like youre in the Stasi" is an oft-hurled insult. Now the club of former Stasi officers says it no longer wants to take the "insults and petty humiliations" sitting down. Dieter Stiebert, 58, is the groups leader and he is "on a mission to resurrect the image" of East Germany, which he believes has been distorted by reunified Germanys pro-West politicians and journalists. The picture painted of the East Germany since 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, was completely different "from how we experienced it". "We want to bring out the truth … We are being persecuted for things that were legal under the state we lived in and which we served." He does not talk about the 3 million informants the Stasi created to spy on their fellow citizens, nor the torture, repression and stealing of babies of former dissidents. "I worked at the Ministry of State Security for 23 years," Mr Stiebert says. And, given the Cold War, "what we did was necessary". Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationBritish Hand Over Basra to Iraqis...Mideast Leaders Gather to Show Support for Abbas... Brushing Aside Critics, Bush Moves to Sell Iraq Strategy... Pope Lauds Austria Catholics for Faith in a Secular Society... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Ex-secret Police Gag On Bad Jokes |
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