From the former prisoners' changing room of the camp in Jáchymov, a community center will be established

Jáchymov – The Political Prisoners.cz Association is striving to save the only preserved building known as the chain room from the former uranium mine in Jáchymov in the Karlovy Vary region. The facility served as a changing room for prisoners of the communist regime from the labor camp Rovnost until the 1960s. The association's intention is to build a community center there. Construction work could begin as early as next year, said Tomáš Bouška, the chairman of the association, to ČTK today. An exhibition currently commemorates the history of one of the largest camps in the country.

The goal of the initiators of the former mining changing room's rescue is to repair and transform the facility into a community center. It is intended for educating about the history of the Ore Mountains, but also as a place for meetings and organizing cultural events. One of the parts of the building will house organizations involved in the restoration of the chain room. These include the Political Prisoners.cz association and the Journalistic Incubator. They are currently preparing project documentation for the initiative.

The project could receive financial support from the cross-border cooperation program Interreg - Czech Republic and Saxony. If the association secures the grant, a reconstruction lasting at least three years could begin next year. The estimated costs are 20 million crowns, of which four million crowns must be secured by the initiators themselves. They are therefore seeking sponsors.

An exhibition is already on display in the chain room. "Anyone passing by can walk through it for free and familiarize themselves with the context. It outlines the 20th century during the saddest period. There are names of perpetrators, like the legendary chief guard Paleček, and then there are portraits of the political prisoners themselves, such as the name Josef Brix," Bouška said.

The Rovnost camp was one of the largest of the eighteen Czechoslovak labor camps established by the communist regime for uranium mining. It was closed in 1960 and razed to the ground. Today, a cottage settlement occupies its site. The era of labor camps is still recalled there by the so-called Paleček's Castle. According to legend, the director of the Rovnost camp, František Paleček, had a miniature Gothic castle built by prisoners.

Currently, the entire area of the camp is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region and is protected as a UNESCO heritage site. The facility is part of the educational trail "Jáchymov Hell," which follows the traces of former communist camps.