Justice Enforcement Facility Bautzen

The Justice Enforcement Facility in Bautzen, built in 1900, was notorious for its inhumane conditions in the past and was therefore called "Gelbes Elend" (yellow misery). Now, the creation of green spaces and sport facilities is supposed to contribute the humanization of the penal system. In the darkest chapter of the prison after 1945, when Bautzen was used as an internment camp of the Soviet military, there were probably several thousands political victims. Immediately before the reunification in the GDR, more than 2,000 prisoners, among them peaceful demonstrators from Dresden, were imprisoned. A meeting of former prisoners, organized by the Bautzen committee, took place here in September 1991. 62-year-old Herbert Hellas from Bielefeld was in a mass cell from 1945-49 - after 42 years he sees this place again.