“The Decomposition of the Soul” is a Belgian documentary about the Berlin Hohenschonhausen, a detention and interrogation center operated by the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. The film generates numbness and alienation in the viewer, which means it’s not much of a date movie, unless your date happens to be Morticia Addams.

The Berlin Hohenschonhausen is like a vacation destination for “1984” aficionados. Detainees live in tiny cells, where they’re constantly monitored: Every cabinet contains a listening device and every corner contains a wooden stool where detainees must sit rigidly for hours on end, not sure if they’re being watched or not. Even worse, the cells are wallpapered in hideous patterns that seem specially designed to depress the soul. And each day’s activity is the same: interrogation.

Meticulous files were kept, but when the Berlin Wall came down the Stasi launched into a predictably efficient shredding campaign. Fortunately, that’s where austere Belgian documentaries come in. “The Decomposition of the Soul” takes two former inmates, Sigrid Paul and Hartmut Richter, back to their old prison so they might give us a guided tour down memory lane. While recounting their incredibly depressing experiences, text by former a prisoner, Jurgen Fuchs, is read. Over it all we hear excerpts from an East German manual on how to “dismantle and liquidate” a detainee’s personality. By the end, viewers feel rather dismantled and liquidated themselves.

It’s a powerful documentary that, like a Stasi interrogation, moves at its own pace with no consideration for the audience, who might feel they are slowly being suffocated, which is surely what the filmmakers intended. When the credits roll and the doors of the auditorium open, you’ll find yourself bolting for freedom like a recently sprung prisoner.

Through February 13 (209 W. Houston St., between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street, 212-727-8110).