RUSSIAN SLAVE CAMPS IN URANIUM MINES SAID TO BE SHOCKING

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 August 1950, Page 5

RUSSIAN SLAVE CAMPS IN URANIUM MINES SAID TO BE SHOCKING

LONDON, Aug. 30 (Recd. 6 p.m.)— Quoting information supplied by the Free Czech Information Service in London, the “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent says slave workers who have escaped from Russian forced labour camps in Czechoslovakia state that internees who are compelled to work in Czech uranium mines are subject to discipline which is reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.

Describing a typical forced labour camp in this area, the prisoners said it was surrounded by a double barrier of barbed wire, broken by a watchtower equipped with machineguns and searchlights. The guards use automatic weapons, police dogs and patrol lorries to prevent escapes. The sanitary conditions are deplorable, with only about one lavatory for every 150 inmates. Guards receive points for each prisoner shot or captured when attempting to escape, and these points count for promotion. Each camp has a form of “self govt” which is administered by prisoners serving the longest terms. Many of these are former Nazi collaborators or officials, and most of them are anxious only to curry favour with guards. Revielle in these camps is at 4 45 a.m. and prisoners work until 6 p’m. with brief breaks for meals. As soon as the day shift ceases a night shift takes over. The prisoners are allocated all hard and dangerous work and the masses of forced labour make up for lack of mechanical equipment. As soon as a uranium layer is uncovered the prisoners are withdrawn, the layer is inspected by a Russian commission and the rest of the work is completed by reliable Communist miners to ensure that nothing is lost by sabotage. Conditions in the camps are so bad that almost hopeless attempts to escape are frequent. Few of therh ever succeed.—NZPA Special Correspondent.