Czechoslovakia

The development of the Czechoslovakian society in the postwar was an important historical break in its story. The relations in Europe changed since the European political field got two new great powers, the Soviet Union and the United States of America. They fought together to knock down Nazi Germany. After the victory, the interests of these two countries were increasingly different until they divided into two antagonistic blocks.

The Nikolaj Camp was one of the 18 prisoner labour camps operated by the Czechoslovak communist regime in the uranium mines of the Jáchymov, Horní Slavkov and Příbram regions. It was established in 1951 on the site of a former forced labour camp and shut down in 1958. Nikolaj, with a capacity of almost one thousand prisoners, was infamous for its brutal regime. In the early years, political prisoners represented a very small minority of its inmates and were often subject to open violence by the warders and other prisoners.

Radon exposure has had long-lasting impacts on the health of Czechoslovak uranium miners, many of whom were political prisoners. While it is well known that radon exposure causes lung cancer, this study found that leukemia, and particularly chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), was also significantly associated with this exposure. 

The paper presented by Klára Pinerová at the XVI. International Oral History Conference, "Between Past and Future: Oral History, Memory and Meaning" in Prague.

The paper presented by Kristýna Bušková at the XVI. International Oral History Conference, "Between Past and Future: Oral History, Memory and Meaning" in Prague.

The full rehabilitation of Communist and non-Communist victims of Stalinist repression represented a major problem for the Czechoslovak Communist regime for decades.

Towards the end of the year1950 a transport of eighty plus prisoners was sent in two busloads from the notorious jail Bory, near Pilsen, to the near empty jail in Ilava in western Slovakia...

The Memories of the daughters of a political prisoner – Maria a Jana Jurčovičová from Slovakia. This paper was presented at the International Youth Conference in Prague: "Life Stories of Victims of Stalinism".

Each letter from prison had to be censored in Communist Czechoslovakia, because it might have contained some forbidden information, complaints about treatment, or a negative comment on Communism.

The reply from the Ministry of Justice on a suit for pardon of Drahomíra Svobodová (nowadays Stuchlíková) dated 1959.

This map presents the main prisons and forced labour camps in communist Czechoslovakia.