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The Czech Republic’s cruel history of uranium mining

Around 80,000 people are believed to have been sentenced to work in the uranium mines by the Czechoslovak communist regime 

A cheap and plentiful source of labor was concocted by the communist regime as it turned on its real and imaginary enemies after taking power…. Brutal conditions in the mines and the camps

Czech historian produces death tally for communist uranium camps Czech historian says he has drawn up the first accurate death tally for the former communist regime’s uranium labor camps Czech Position.com Chris Johnstone | 05.04.2012 A Czech historian has drawn up the first list of prisoners who perished in the Czechoslovak communist regime’s infamous network of uranium mining camps.

After three years of laborious research, František Bártík believes he
has drawn up a near definitive list of all the victims of the
notorious camps and puts the death toll at 501 for those sentenced to
forced labor by the regime that took power in 1948.

Most of the prisoners died from accidents in the atrocious conditions
of the mines, many committed suicide, and some appear to have been
killed in suspicious circumstances that suggest they were murdered by
the guards.

Bártík told the Czech daily Mladá Fronta Dnes that compiling the list
was problematic given that all deaths in the early years of the
regime’s forced labor camps were not systematically recorded. He added
that the list of victims could still be clarified further……
“The figures are for those who died during their sentences. It does
not include those, for example, who died prematurely, say six months
after being released,” Bártík told Czech Position.

Soviet supplier
Around 80,000 people are believed to have been sentenced to work in
the uranium mines by the Czechoslovak communist regime which was keen
to fulfill a contract signed in 1947, before the communist party
grabbed total power, to supply the raw material for atom bombs to the
Soviet Union…..
Immediately after WWII, German prisoners of war were used to work at
the most important mine at Jáchymov, in the far west of Bohemia near
the German border. The mine was so important that it was the subject
of a special mission by Russian soldiers in the closing days of WWII
to try and discover what uranium stores they could raid even though
that part of Czechoslovakia was supposed to be under the jurisdiction
of the occupying US military.

As the surviving German prisoners gradually had to be shipped back
home, the pressing problem emerged of who would replace them. Czech
and Slovaks were offered high wages to work in uranium extraction but
even this could not encourage sufficient labor to keep pace with the
growing number of mines being hastily opened to meet Russian demand.

A cheap and plentiful source of labor was concocted by the communist
regime as it turned on its real and imaginary enemies after taking
power. A sentence of forced labor in the uranium mines became
commonplace in the early 1950s as the regime clamped down on dissent
and unrest as it failed to deliver on its political and economic
promises.
Death sentences
Some of those sentenced to long terms of labor were labeled “Muklů, an
acronnym which translates from Czech to mean men designated for
liquidation. Quite simply, they were not expected to survive the camps
and with the regime counting on their deaths far before they
approached the ends of their sentences.

Brutal conditions in the mines and the camps, hastily erected wooden
barracks, often with rudimentary facilities and rations and
privileges, such as receiving letters, based on meeting or exceeding
work quotas, meant that many prisoners aged prematurely or became
chronically ill. Prison authorities in some cases agreed to send them
home when it was clear they only had a few months to live………
Those who survived their sentences were still punished afterwards,
usually being banned from returning to their previous jobs and were
often forced to work as manual laborers. Their families were also
victimized and they usually continued to be the focus of particular
attention from the security services.

The camp buildings and mining equipment of the Vojna mine were
conserved as the one of the last almost fully preserved facilities of
its kind in the Czech Republic and the complex opened to the public as
a memorial to those who perished in 2005.

The Czech Republic still mines uranium at a deep mine in the center of
the country with the reserves being regarded as strategic for the
country’s long-term energy security.
http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/czech-historian-produces-death-tally-communist-uranium-camps

April 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, history, Reference, Uranium