Archaeologists will map the remnants of a labor camp with a death tower

Plzeň – Archaeologists from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň (ZČU) will map the remains of a labor camp with the Red Tower of Death near Jáchymov in Karlovy Vary. This former uranium ore sorting facility at the communist labor camp Vykmanov II is now a national cultural monument registered in the UNESCO cultural heritage. In collaboration with the Confederation of Political Prisoners of the Czech Republic, they are using drones to provide three-dimensional documentation of the monument, and in the summer, they will conduct archaeological excavations near the tower, said ZČU spokesperson Šárka Stará today. The Confederation has made the tower accessible and opened an exhibition dedicated to the lives of people imprisoned in labor camps.

"The labor camp was closed in 1956 and subsequently used by the Škoda Ostrov plant (trolleybuses were manufactured there), undergoing significant changes. The archaeological research will try to reveal the original surface that the prisoners walked on in the 1950s," said the head of the archaeology department, Pavel Vařeka.

According to him, uranium ore was transported directly from there by rail to the Soviet Union under a secret agreement between Czechoslovakia and the USSR, where it served the Stalinist regime for the production of atomic weapons. The research will verify the preservation of the remains of the complex from the late 1940s and 1950s. Vařeka and his students will conduct research around the Red Tower in July. The goal of the excavation is also to obtain material evidence of the operation of the facility and the living conditions of the prisoners, he said.

Since the end of May, people will be able to see findings from the nearby penal labor camps Nikolaj and Eliáš II, where Vařeka's team of archaeologists conducted research in 2018 and 2019. The Confederation of Political Prisoners has made the Red Tower of Death accessible and has opened an exhibition dedicated to the lives of people imprisoned in labor camps.

Trial operation of the site will take place on May 22-23, and from May 29, the exhibition will be open every weekend and, if there is public interest, also on weekdays. Guides will be present on-site. For the first time, archaeological findings from the research of the nearby penal labor camps will be presented to the public in the exhibition directly in the Tower of Death. These include, in particular, personal items of the prisoners, remains of equipment, and structures of the prison barracks, providing tangible evidence of the living conditions in the camps associated with the deployment of unfree labor in uranium mining, including thousands of political prisoners, Vařeka stated.

According to its chairman, Petr Dub, the Confederation greatly appreciates the cooperation with the department and the loaned archaeological findings. "This allows us to provide evidence of the harsh conditions faced by political prisoners under the communist regime, who mined and prepared uranium ore for transport, and who had to pay for it with their health or lives," he stated. The Confederation, in cooperation with partners, plans to open an international memorial and educational center in the Red Tower of Death that will dignifiedly commemorate the history of this site.