Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

giving us the equipment added if you don’t meet the requirements, you will not get anything
to eat, good luck.” 27
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 28 . The headquarters made these conditions even more difficult,
giving prisoners extra jobs after their work. It often did not 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 did not 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. 29
However in prisons, inside the stay was not 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 Čeněk Petelík was accused
and sentenced to death for helping the prisoners. Six other guards were sentenced to longterm
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 Bacílek.
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.
27 PETRÁŠOVÁ, Ludmila. Vězeňské tábory v jáchymovských uranových dolech. The labor camps in uranium mines in Jáchymov
1949–1961. Sborník archivních prací, ročník XLIV., 1994, s. 392.
28 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.“
29 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.“
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