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Guillotine Education details the abuses practices of the former East German State Security (Stasi) as experienced by border guard Manfred Smolka. His temporary cellmate Klaus Schmude recounts the harrowing tale of the young official disillusioned by the shocking realities of a rogue regime. Pacing his cell, Smolka is stunned by the death sentence he has just been handed. His attorney already knows that the decision by the kangaroo court is a foregone conclusion, yet he still encourages him to appeal the decision to the highest authorities in the land. Smolka then reflects on the circumstances of his illegal apprehension on West German soil, and his hellish months of detention marked by sleep deprivation and seemingly endless good cop/bad cop interrogations. The interplay between the present and the past continues as he recalls his upbringing and the ideological warfare employed by his East German trainers in preparing him for his career as a border guard.
It is when he begins to question the validity of Stalinist ideology and its brutal practices that he develops a crisis of conscience. He concludes that his only acceptable choice is to escape to the West, which he successfully manages to do. Upon crossing the border, he is detained and questioned by West German authorities. They, in turn, hand him over to the Americans, who consider him a particularly valuable source of information about East German border installations. His kindly Jewish American interrogator soon releases him to enjoy his newly acquired freedom after making a brilliant connection between the brutalities of Hitler’s national socialism and Stalinist totalitarian socialism. These brutalities included the occasional beheading of political prisoners with the identical guillotine used by both regimes.
After a year of blissful freedom in West Germany, Smolka decides to rescue his wife and daughter from the GDR. Little did he realize that this decision would lead to such fateful consequences.
