At the height of the Cold War, East Germany operated a secret academy designed to train agents in elite psychological manipulation tactics.

There was too much to lose, there was too many snitches everywhere at the workplace in school.

Husbands vying on wives, you know, there were several such cases.

It was a pretty evil set-up. Now, for the first time, we have

access to a trove of secret recordings that reveal the inner workings of the Starzy Training Academy and our correspondent in Berlin, Oliver Moody, has been listening to hours of them.

It was kind of grotesquely fascinating.

You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times.

I'm Manveen Rana. Today, inside the Starzy Spy School.

Okay, all right. I'm going to press play on it now if that's okay.

But a new little one, it's not a little bit, I'm going to

with the city not only, I'm going to be able. I think that we're going to eat. The coffee

I've already got a garment so either. And I had the no-unme

clapped. I don't want you to the shrima muste.

There was so much, that's all the same thing. What are we listening to?

This is a tape recorded on April the 18th,

1984.

We don't know for certain where it was recorded, but we're probably

in a secret police interrogation cell in an East German town called Halberstadt, which is about a dozen of a tight spot.

She's explaining how the Stasi officers tried to force her to sign a document officially disowning her own mother.

She's saying, I wanted to read it all the way through so I knew what I was signing.

And I told them, I can't put my signature on that.

It doesn't correspond to the truth.

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