Abstract
Abstract This article treks through the timeworn remnants of Czechoslovakia’s Communist forced and correctional labour uranium camps in the Ore Mountains in the northwest Bohemian region of Jáchymov. These camps held tens of thousands of detainees, largely political prisoners convicted in sham trials or individuals sent there for re-education. Conditions were deplorable. Throughout the 1950s, the young Czechoslovak Communist regime compelled detainees to hard, life threatening labour and subjected them to maltreatment and arbitrary violence. This article traces some of the visible, invisible or overgrown artefacts of the former camps, as well as public as private memories about what happened there. It reflects on the current memoryscape of these forgotten places of human suffering and describes the aesthetics of these aging sites of atrocity.
Highlights
Through the 1989 so-called ‘Velvet Revolution’ Czechia underwent a relatively peaceful transition from communism to liberal democracy and a market economy
This article treks through the timeworn remnants of Czechoslovakia’s Communist forced and correctional labour uranium camps in the Ore Mountains in the northwest Bohemian region of Jáchymov. These camps held tens of thousands of detainees, largely political prisoners convicted in sham trials or individuals sent there for re-education
This article traces some of the visible, invisible or overgrown artefacts of the former camps, as well as public as private memories about what happened there. It reflects on the current memoryscape of these forgotten places of human suffering and describes the aesthetics of these aging sites of atrocity
Summary
Through the 1989 so-called ‘Velvet Revolution’ Czechia underwent a relatively peaceful transition from communism to liberal democracy and a market economy. Certainly not society, seem ready to gaze in the mirror and face the—perhaps ugly/unpleasant/confrontational—reflection of their past selves. One such uneasy memoryscape, mired in myth and sentiment, is the use of forced labour and abuse of (political) prisoners in the detention camps in the uranium-rich mines in the Jáchymov region in the 1950s and early 1960s. We do so by (i) offering our visual and sensual reflections on the aesthetics of the remaining physicalities of the camps during our stay in the Jáchymov area in the summer of 2020; and (ii) engaging with (oral) histories, museal narratives and the public record.[2]. International Criminal Law Review 22 (2022) 328-D3o4wn6loaded from Brill.com01/31/2022 03:55:56PM via free access holá and bouwknegt
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