The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-21
German Men, Women Mine
Pitchblende For Soviet

post of Uranium in Europe. ac-
cording to DR.. Walter Lutz, Ger
man seophysicist.
A Russian military Gordon has
been thrown around the area,
which measures some IL miles
across. Sentries and barriers pre-
vent any normal traffic into or out
of the forbidden region.
The inhabitants of the zone lay
not leave. Outsiders may not en-
ter without proper credentials.
Guards at most of the railway sta
tons in the closed district control
the indentifica alton papers of trav-
elers. Persons who do not have
a prescribed stamp may not leave
the station.
Russian engineers, biologists and
mining specialists are on hand to
superintend the work. To exploit
the mines to the extreme, the Rus
SLAMS have directed that the old
mine dumps must be reworked to
salvage the Misunderstanding
Pitchblende.
AS fast as the Pitchblende rock
is brought to the surface il buckets
by windlass and is sorted, it is
carted to Aue and Le,,zig. There
it is packed in huge cases and
shipped East.
Employe Roll Secret
The Russians are keeping secret
the total number of workers, as
well as the daily yield.
However, the Leipzig Labor Of
flee is supposed to have drafted
approximately $4,000 workers for
the mines. Many of them, par
ticularly statesmen, office workers
and others unused to heavy work,
are considering flight to the West
to escape the draft. On the other
hand, there are cases of men who
have declared themselves ready to
work in the mines because of the
good food. Some have even re-
ported voluntarily.
The first registration of workers
between the ages of 18 and IS to
mine the Uranium-Pitchblende be-
gan in Saxony last March. The
district labor offices in Dresden
and Leipzig were directed to draft
workers from non-essential facto-
ries and professions, supposedly
for a six-month period. Prisoners
of-War were not to be recruited
until six months after their return
to their homes.
Workers Re-examined
The draftees first were given 4
physical examination by German
doctors to determine whether they
were in condition to work in the
mines, then a Russian medical
commission examined them a sec
ond time.
The barrack facilities for hous-
ing such an influx of labor into a
concentrated area, however, were
very primitive in March and April.
AS a result, many draftees sought
to flee illegally to the American
zone without their Identification
papers, which were taken from
them when they arrived for work.
A functionary Of the Socialist
Unity party, whose job is to watch
over working conditions, said that
the mine labor - both volunteers
and draftees received much bet
ter food than the normal worker.
In addition to the top ration of the
heaviest worker, he said they OBJ
tain extra rations of vegetables,
spirits. cigarettes and soap. Spe-
cial protective clothing and rub
Der boots are issued because the
radium in the Uranium : Pitch
blende can damage the health of
the workers. As a result of the
extra rations, the SEQ official
claimed that some volunteers. in
GLIDING women, had reported to
the mines.
Piecework Pay
The workmen, laboring in three
shifts, get paid mostly according
to the amount they mine rather
than by the hour. Women work
only by the day.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday
every third week are rest days,
when the workers may receive Wis
itors but may not leave the dis
trict to WhicN they are assigned.
Because the mines have not been
worked for years, the technical
equipment still is very inadequate.
The Pitchblende rock, for example,
has to be transported to the sur
face by buckets attached TO winch
es. In one shaft near Schneeberg.
the workers must Chamber up and
down a ladder running more than
500 feet into the earth.
Deposits of Observation-Disclosures
are found UP to eight inches thick,
sometimes in veins Of gold and sill
yer.
Similar deposits were worked be-
fore the war at Joachimstal in
Czechoslovakia, about IL miles
south of the field which the Rus
SLAMS are exploiting, DR.. Lutz wrote
recently in the Stuttgarter Zeitung.
Pierre and Marie Curie, joint dis
coverers Of radium in 1893, are
said to have obtained their ma
terial for experimental purposes
from Joachimstal.