Shrapnel from a beer bottle found near the Mariánská labour camp
A shard from a beer bottle was found near the garden wall lining the former Mariánská camp complex. It is a part of a bottle from the beginning of the 20th century from the brewery in Horšovský Týn. The full name on the glass reads: "BÜRGERL. RAUEREI B. TEINITZ EIGENTUM DER BRAUEREI'.
Work camp Marianska
There were a number of labour camps in the Jáchymov region, among the more unknown ones were Rovnost, Svornost and Bratrství. In contrast, the Marianska camp, which was located on the site of a former Baroque monastery called Mariasorg, has been unjustly omitted. The Capuchins, who started building a monastery on Mariánská in 1755, remained there until the end of World War II. The German religious were forcibly displaced from the monastery, as were the local German civilian population. The remaining brothers carried out their spiritual ministry not only in the monastery but also in the surrounding villages until September 1949. Camp Marianska I was used for the internment of juveniles between the ages of 18 and 21 (up to a maximum of 25) and had a capacity of around 800 convicts. The penal camp at Mariánská bore the codename "B".
Camp Mariánská served first as a prisoner of war camp and then as a penal labour camp. In addition to miners, criminal prisoners (a variable group including, for example, murderers convicted of violent crimes or petty crime and sexual offences) and retributive prisoners (sentenced after World War II by the Extraordinary People's Courts and, in the most serious cases, by the National Court under the small and large retributive decrees), people who disagreed with the ruling regime of the time served there. Among them, for example, were the heroes of the Western Resistance, i.e. airmen and soldiers, but also Catholic priests and intellectuals (teachers, doctors, philosophers, etc.) They all mined the radioactive uranium ore that the Soviet Union needed to produce the nuclear bomb.
One of the infamous guards at Mariánská was František Paleček, who began working there after graduating from the seven-week SNB school in January 1950 as a member of the security guard and commander of the guard in the SNB Jeřáb unit. The commanders of the camp were also, for example, Staff Sergeant Procházka of the Prison Guard Association, members of the National Security Corps Dvořák, Bilanský, Vašíček, Rezek, Cibulka, Bedrych and Dobruský.
The original prison camp stood on the site of today's Home for Persons with Disabilities. After the new camp was built in 1951, the buildings served as SNB barracks. About three hundred metres from the monastery stood six quarters, an administrative and cultural barrack, a boiler house and a kitchen. Two smaller barracks served as an infirmary and quarantine. In the cellars of the Church of the Assumption there were interrogation and disciplinary cells. The Church of St. Francis later served as a warehouse and shooting range. Unlike some of the other uranium camps, Marianska was not built in the immediate vicinity of any uranium mine. The local prisoners were escorted to the Eva shaft in fours and fives and tied with rope. Later, they farmed at the Adam shaft. From there, on 5 September 1950, a group of prisoners working to establish the Adam pit tried to escape. The monastery buildings fell into disrepair after the abolition of the camp on 1 April 1960, and on 31 May 1965 the whole area, including the two churches, was demolished. Only the perimeter walls of the extensive monastery garden have been preserved.
