The "shaking machine" was no good

In 1951, Zdeněk Kovařík was sentenced to prison and sent to a uranium mine in the region of Jáchymov. First he was put in the infamous “tower of death” in camp “L” where he spent five months. “The uranium ore had to be sorted according to its quality and the best quality ore was ground into five-millimeter granules. Next, it was put in barrels, which was a very exhausting job because each barrel had to weigh at least sixty kilos. The ore that usually arrived didn't have such a high quality, so it weighed less. It was necessary to additionally beat it down with hammers, which was an arduous job. Later a “shaking machine” was being used, but it was no good. The ore would just be shaken around and that only increased the amount of dust in the air. We had no respirators or goggles, so quite often someone had an inflammation of the eye. Any wound, for example if you cut yourself, immediately started to fester. My hand was covered with scratch marks. So it was full of boils” Kovařík explains. Ore processing was one of the worst jobs in Jáchymov. He goes on to explain: “In winter, when the temperature dropped to fifteen degrees below zero, six guys half naked would stand ten meters from an open door. Beating the barrels with hammers was extremely exhausting, so if we’d kept our shirt on, it would be drenched with sweat in five minutes. We couldn't keep it on because it would start to freeze on us due to drought in the room.”