Prisons and Working Camps in Czechoslovakia
Let's focus shortly on which prisons and working camps the prisoners could be sent to after their trials. The Czechoslovakian prison system was specific with the uranium working camps, which were located near Slavkov and Příbram, but the most "popular" place for these camps was Jáchymov. These areas were located mainly in Northern Bohemia excluding Příbram in Middle Bohemia. The conditions here were really cruel. The prisoners worked in the uranium mines where they were exposed to the dangerous radioactivity. Work was hard and there was a high danger of getting injured. The food was not adequate. Prisoners' lives were also complicated by the natural conditions because in winter the temperatures dropped well below freezing in some of the camps. In 1953 there were almost 15,000 prisoners, which was nearly half the total number of people imprisoned in Czechoslovakia at that time.
What did these camps look like? For example, the camps at Jáchymov were surrounded with two rows of fencing 2.5 meters high with barbed wire. In between the inner and outer fence there was a space of about 1 - 1.5 meters wide tilled with white sand on which the potential escapee could be seen well. In the corners and in the middle between the corners there were guard towers with a height of six meters with lights and machine guns. The whole fencing system was lit with strong lights. In case the electricity was cut off, there were special generators that could produce electricity. Prisoners were housed in small wooden houses, which they couldn't leave during the night. Some mines were placed right in the camp and to others, prisoners had to walk and in these cases special corridors were built to the mine. In other cases prisoners were tied together with steel cords into so called, "Human packages," which were also known as, "Russian Buses."
The names of the camps were usually derived from the names of the mines where the prisoners worked. The most infamous mines belonged to camps that were named by Communists after the basic motto of the French Revolution, Equality and Brotherhood. The third camp was named Concord. To call it Freedom would have probably been too provocative. In camp Equality the main commander was Palaček, originally named Albín Dvořák. He was known especially for his cruel re-education of Jehovah Witnesses[1]. He was also beating prisoners without any special reason. It is reported he repeatedly shot several prisoners. They also say he shot some prisoners while they were trying to "escape". According to the memories, Palaček liked to go pick mushrooms with one of the prisoners who had to march 1.5 meters in front of him. If Palaček thought the "Mukl" made a suspicious movement, he was shot. In the Vojna Memorial, near the town of Příbram we can find there a museum, revealing what kind of conditions the prisoners lived and what a prison camp looked like.
A special camp was called "L" also known for its liquidating. It was a small camp practically formed out of four buildings. In one building there was a headquarters and in the other there was a kitchen and infirmary. Prisoners lived in the remaining two buildings. Prisoners classified as incorrigible and most dangerous were sent here. Finally the most learned and intelligent people in the state were gathered here, from bishops and priests, to officers, professors of theology, and high school professors. In this camp there was also the "Tower of Death" where the clean uranium ore was ground. Prisoners had to work here without any special protective equipment and they were constantly exposed to the radioactivity as well as at work as in their houses that were built close to this tower[2].
What was the arrival to the camps like? Were the prisoners taught how to work in the mines? It was inconceivable. One of the political prisoners described his first working day this way, "When I went down into the pit for the first time in my life I met there an official guard and he told me I would be a breaker, that I would chip. In front of me they put hoses, drilling sticks, and a drill. Up at the surface I already got a special carbit lamp, but I didn't have a clue how it worked. I also got a helper who was a math professor and he didn't know how to hold a shovel. Then we were told that we were supposed to make a progress of 30 centimeters a day per person and that the progress was measured four times a month. The guards' helper who was giving us the equipment added if you don't meet the requirements, you will not get anything to eat, good luck."[3]
The conditions in the uranium working camp were the worst in the Czechoslovakian prisons. The quotas to be met were high and to not fulfill them meant restricted meals. People worked in the very harmful radioactive environment out of which most of them left with various diseases from leukemia to cancer[4]. The headquarters made these conditions even more difficult, giving prisoners extra jobs after their work. It often didn't even make sense, for example prisoners would often get the task of moving one pile of snow to another place. Sometimes the prisoners were often given the added punishment of going to solitary confinement, which was like a prison within a prison. They would be put there for some kind of offense, which was often made up. They were getting only half portions of food and the biggest thing was that they didn't get any blankets. This way, days and nights, when there was minus 20 degrees Celsius, it was unbelievably cruel. The solitary cell was often just a reinforced concrete bunker, where there was no glass in the window[5].
However in prisons, inside the stay wasn't any easier or more pleasant. Pankrác and Ruzyně were the most infamous prisons in Prague. In Pankrác there was a hospital for the prisons and to this hospital all seriously ill prisoners were transferred. Many political prisoners were waiting for the group trial in prison in Pankrác. Another important prison was the one in Plzeň-Bory, which was located in the western side of Bohemia. The building was in the shape of a star so that all its parts would be visible from one location. On June 21, 1949 General Heliodor Píka was executed there. In this prison was a special department called "Kremlin" where there was a Commander V. Trepka who was known for his cruelty. This department was safeguarded with double bars in the corridors and in the windows and the doors of the cells had special locks. The prison at Bory was known for its case in which one of its guards Čenek Petelík was accused and sentenced to death for helping the prisoners. Six other guards were sentenced to long-term sentences in prison. Of course it was a made-up case where the named guards were set up in another "Monster Process" where their colleagues would see everything. It was supposed to be a deterrent so that guards would not help the prisoners.
There was also a prison called Leopoldov located in Slovakia, where political prisoners with high sentences were placed. In this prison the conditions were also very miserable and inhumane. Eating and accommodation were not adequate. These conditions lasted until 1953 when Leopoldov was visited by the commission led by Minister of National Security Karol Bacík. After this visit the conditions got better. In 1956 a new department was established called "Vatican," which served to separate out the clergy. Similar conditions were in other prisons such as in Mírov and Valdice.
For women there was a prison in Pardubice. At the beginning they were putting political prisoners here with sentences of ten years or higher and later in the 1950's this rule was changed and women had to share the place with murderers, prostitutes, and thieves. There was a special department called "Hrad," (Castle) where the politically active women were located. Out of them we could name the professor of Charles University, Růžena Vacková, Dagmar Skálová, or Vlasta Charvátová. In total there were sixty-four women in this department. Besides this department there was another department called "Vatican" for nuns and a department called "Underworld" where they mainly put women with venereal diseases, prostitutes, women with mental problems, and habitual offenders. Besides the normal prisons women also worked in something called "commandos" out of which the best known was Želiezovce in Slovakia. Here women worked out in the fields in very hard conditions[6].
Chapter four itself in the army imprisonment was called "domeček" in Kapucínska street in Prague, Hradčany. It was an institution of the 5th department of the Headquarters or known also as OBZ. There they mainly kept soldiers, who were forced to testify in certain ways via cruel inspecting methods. Professional soldiers were brought there and they had their hearings there complete with all the cruel tactics of a hearing[7].
The conditions in the prisons and working camps got much worse after February 1948. Bullying became the daily bread, especially for the political prisoners. Guards who looked after the prisoners for decades were fired and in their place came young guards who were easy to manipulate. These new guards considered political prisoners the biggest criminals, who wanted to destroy society and to destroy the whole "human-democratic" regime.
[1] Josef Cech speaks about Jehovah Witnesses in one of the interview, "I forgot to mention that in Rovnost (Equality) there were Jehovah Witnesses. They came because they didn't want to join the army or work in the mines to get the uranium. These people were abused in ways you can‘t imagine. They would let them stand in uniforms with hats in the snow and frost until they would fall down. Then they were taken to the infirmary and that was repeated several times. They didn't break them so they transported them to other camps where they worked in laundries and other departments that were not attached to the war or violence."
[2] For more information about the tower of death and the work conditions in the camp read the interviews with Hubert Procházka and Zdeněk Kovařík.
[3] PETRÁŠOVÁ, Ludmila. Vězeňské tábory v jáchmovskách uranových dolech. The labour camps in uranium mines in Jáchymov 1949-1961. Sbrorník archivních prací, ročník XLIV., 1994, s. 392.
[4] For example Mr. Hubert Procházka gave testimony about his health problems due to the uranium's radioactivity,"Together with the cancer I also have damaged joints. I am 15 centimeters shorter and I have an artificial hip joint. I should get another artificial hip joint in the next half of year. My backbone is damaged as well, since my spinal discs are disintegrating. My fourth vertebra pulls forward towards my stomach. So actually I can't really move that much so the vertebra won't move further and I won't pinch my spinal cord. Then I would have to be in a wheel chair."
[5] Such a stay in solitary confinement is well described by Alois Macek, "Solitary confinement on Vršek was one of the worst things I went through during my whole imprisonment. In winter when the temperature was between -15 and -20 we didn't have any beds. There were only iron bars put into the ground and at night you could put wooden boards to lie down, but we didn't get any boards. We also didn't get any blankets and there were three of us - Jindra Hermann, Sotolář, and I started a hunger strike because this was above what a human could possibly stand."
[6] For more about the conditions in Želiezovce Mrs. Květoslava Moravečková reports.
[7] See the interview with Augustin Bubník.
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