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Jachymov Work Camp

Jachymov Work Camp


When you meet a Czech communist nowadays and you try to engage in some discussion about what the Czech communists did to non-communist Czechs in the 1950s there’s often this defence about “not everybody was executed, many only went to work camps”. Let’s take a look at one of those places, specifically the Jachymov Work Camp.

scene of jachymov with svornost mine in the background
Jachymov Svornost Mine – Copyright zdarbuh.cz

Search for any information about 1950s Czech on Wikipedia and it won’t take long for you to see the word “Jachymov” keep appearing. Nowadays Jachymov, in the north-west of Czech on the border with Germany, is well known as an historically preserved spa town. But in its 1950s context to be sent here to work was effectively a death sentence.


The Jachymov Work Camp

When you search for Jachymov Work Camp very often results are returned with the word “Svornost”. The Svornost mine in the town of Jachymov is more historic than you might think (for Czechs, ST Jachym is the patron saint of miners). Back in 1525 the area supported more than 600 silver mines that brought wealth to the region. But it was also generating another mineral called Pitchblende which was being used for colouring glass with a pale yellowish-green tint (Jachymov is part of the historically glass/porcelain producing area of the Karlovy Vary district). It became clear that Pitchblende was just part of a more common ore found in the mine and in 1789 that mineral ore was given the name Uranium. “Uranium colours” from Jachymov then become a major part of the European glass and porcelain production in the 19th Century.

After the discovery of “Radioactivity” in 1896 a certain Marie Sklodowska-Curie used Uranium ore from the Svornost mine in her experiments culminating in her 1903 Physics Nobel Prize. Nowadays the Svornost mine is better known for it’s Radon springs (one of the elements that Marie Curie discovered) and actually is owned by the nearby medicinal spa.


1950s

Over the course of the previous 10 years the radioactive properties of Uranium had resulted in the production of the first atomic bombs and the Soviets were working flat out to acquire their own. So in combination with a communist party sentencing thousands of Czechs to hard labour from 1949 until 1962 what better use for these “conspirators and enemies of the state” than to send them into a work camp (radioactive mine) without any protection to get this vital mineral. Unfortunately there was more than one invisible killer.


Radon

It’s well established now that radioactivity was not the main killer at the Jachymov work camp. As early as 1906 water infused with Radon was being piped to the nearby spas as a method of treating pain. Of course, on the negative side Radon gas is a major cause of lung cancer hence why houses nowadays built in areas where Radon gas may be present have purpose-built barriers or venting systems to stop Radon entering the house. But for 1950s political prisoners being sent into the mines with no protection at all then the communists knew exactly that the life expectancy of the prisoner would be reduced to a matter of a few years if not a few months so effectively prisoners were sentenced to death.

I always keep this in mind when I am talking to communists.


Something Related or a Few Minutes Away

Politics/History – The 1948 Communist Coup

Politics/History – Collectivisation

Politics/History – Velvet Revolution

Memorials – Czech Ice Hockey team

Museums – Communism Museum

Trips from Prague – Karlovy Vary