Hunger Strike in Labour Camp

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František Šedivý spent a part of his 14-year prison sentence in the communist camp Bytíz. “The conditions in the camp were not so harsh compared to those in the Jáchymov area, and we even had greater freedom of movement. And although the food ratios were small, we were not starving. In May 1955 a strike began in Bytíz, because of the new guards and their order that all inmates had to go for lunch at the same time. The hunger strike took about four days; some food was bought in the local canteen. Even the Germans went on the hunger strike with us. Only two prisoners went to the muster: German doctor Neuwirth who was the former secretary of Henlein and some Šebesta. The cons were then punished and placed throughout the entire Jáchymov and Příbram areas. However, the news spread and it probably served as a basis for another hunger strike in the Vojna camp.”

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František Šedivý

František Šedivý, MSc, was born on July 2, 1927 in Zadní Třebáň. During the Second World War, namely in 1942, he was expelled from his school as a result of the Nazi terror that followed the assassination of Heydrich. In 1944, he was subjected to forced labour in the Junkers factory. At that time he served as a contact-man in the resistance movement against the Nazis. After the communist putsch in February 1948 he joined the resistance movement again, this time against the communists. He distributed fliers, managed to take refugees across the border in the Šumava Mountains twice; as a university student he organized a group that was preparing for the anticipated fall of the regime. In the early fifties he uncovered an agent-provocateur Golda. This resulted in his arrest in 1952 and a 14-year prison sentence. He was imprisoned in a number of camps including Mírov and many camps in the Jáchymov area, such as the Central Camp, C Camp, L Camp – the so called Tower of Death, Bytíz and Vojna. He was released on probation in February 1964.

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Bytíz

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In 1953, a penal labor camp was built near shaft No. 11, close to the village of Bytíz, in the Příbramsko region. It was the largest of the uranium camps in Czechoslovakia with a capacity of up to 2,000 inmates. According to the statistics of the Prison Service, in 1956, 1,894 convicts – largely political prisoners – worked in the camp. Most of the inmates were assigned to work in the uranium mines. Inmates were constantly exposed to inhumane conditions and exposed to radiation and the inhalation of granite dust which permanently damaged their health. Many of them died of lung cancer. Today, there's almost nothing left of the main camp. In 1962, the camp kitchen caved in along with two prisoners because of undermining. In reaction to this event, the original camp was closed down and a new camp was built in its vicinity, which serves as the Příbram prison today.