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The Shocking Analogy Between Nazi and Communist Labor Camps
Besides the obvious crimes that took place in them, a sinister similarity deserves attention.
It may come as a surprise for many: nazi Germany was not the only European nation that established concentration and forced labor camps. Granted, Solzhenitsyn wrote about the Gulag system in the USSR, but were there concentration camps in other countries? The answer is yes. The communist regimes in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland all built concentration camps as a tool to get rid of any form of opposition. And so did communist Czechoslovakia.
In today’s Czech Republic, you can still visit the museum “Památník Vojna” near Příbram, about 70km south of Prague. At the top of the access gate, a sign reads “Prací ke svobode,” which means, literally, “Work towards freedom.” A sinister reminder of the ominous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (”Work sets you free”) placed at the gates of nazi concentration and extermination camps, most notably, Auschwitz.
Unfortunately for those imprisoned in the Czechoslovak camps, the work they would do had no direct correlation with the possibility of being released. Příbram itself was one of three large camp complexes (in addition to Jáchymov and Horní Slavkov, closer to the German border) where prisoners were put to work in uranium mines. Without any form of protection whatsoever. Exposed to radiation every day for years. The regime labeled the political prisoners in those camps as “MUKL,” an acronym for “Muž Určený K Likvidaci,” which is Czech for “Men Destined for annihilation.”
“Freedom” would never be an option for the tens of thousands of political prisoners that were locked up in a camp or a prison during communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Persecution would continue even after prisoners served a full sentence. The regime actively discriminated against former prisoners, making it impossible to find decent jobs and forcing them to accept the most humiliating ones. But they went beyond that: family members and friends were also discriminated against and persecuted. Spouses, siblings would lose their jobs; children would be rejected by schools and universities.
All those victims deserve to be remembered. Their stories need to be told, and the truth about how much damage communism caused in Central and Eastern Europe should be clear to everyone.
In the coming weeks, I will write some of these stories here. Some of them are utterly tragic, while others have happier endings. But they all bear witness to the crimes that Communism committed and the heroism and suffering of those that fought against it until the end.
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