Talk:Wismut (company)

forced labor

I removed the following section, because everything was said before. However, I don't want to delete it, so I paste it here"

Beginning in the summer of 1946 the Soviets began explorations in the Erzgebirge, and by early 1947 they sealed off the western part with military units. To avoid interference they took complete ownership of mining operations under the names Vitriol and Vismuth. The work was very labor intensive and performed under very bad conditions, many tens of thousands of miners were needed. However rather than improving living and working conditions, the Soviets chose to rely on bringing in forced labor. "The mining operation turned into a death march". The Soviets were unable to keep secret the conditions in the area, in early 1947 they drafted additional 25,000-30,000 forced laborers from areas such as Dresden and Leipzig. However this was not enough, and drafting was extended to areas such as Mecklenburg in mid 1947. Many of those drafted were poorly equipped for the work, both physically and experience wise, they were students or office workers. Early 1948 the Soviets started drafting women and men working in factories, sending petty criminals there, and also German prisoners of war. The central receiving point for laborers was in Aue and was called the "gate of tears". Living conditions were very poor, many had to sleep in tents, and many had to sleep on the ground without even blankets. Conditions in the mines were worse than the living conditions, though. In the summer of 1947 the Soviet authorities requested an additional 70,000 workers, leading many who were in danger of drafting to flee. Some socialist volunteers were however lured to go there on their own volition, many of which found themselves turned into forced labor, few managed to leave. Due to the high attrition rate, e.g. death and poor health, recruitment needs continued. The SED in 1949 reported that accidents kept increasing. In 1948 there were 574 accidents with 10 or more deaths on average. Thousands fled west rather than risk being sent to the mines. Conditions in the mines remained bad throughout the 1950's. For example AG Wismuth records show that at least 20,000 workers suffered from, or died from, lung diseases caused by radiation and inhalation of dust.

Geomartin (talk) 06:54, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Although the description of the terrible work conditions in the mines was covered in this article, nowhere does it say that they were forced labor camps. Wismut AG was the Soviet company that ran the uranium mines. It was under the supervision of Colonel General Ivan Serov, head of the NKVD/MVD in the Soviet Zone of Occupation. Lavrentii Beria, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, chief of the NKVD, who was directly responsible for the Soviet atom bomb project, appointed NKVD Major General Mikhail M. Maltsev , a veteran commander of GULAG labor camps in the USSR and recipient of the highest Soviet decorations, to lead this enterprise. All this information,that the Wismut mines were a part of the Soviet slave labor system deserves to be mentionedZweisimmen (talk) 17:31, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

Written like an advertisement (?)

After copy editing this text for several hours, I decided to delete the objection as to "promotional tone" as it surely must be based on some kind of misunderstanding.

This text is clearly not advertising for a company, but a through presentation of what was highly restricted information at the time of Soviet occupation and the East German government. The current successor company is only described in the context of its labors to restore the damaged environment left by its predecessor. The length of the article is justified by its status of a rare historical account of a chapter of East German history, bringing to light much that could not even be whispered about at the time. It is also a source of geological information probably not easily found elsewhere.

Any objections out there?

--Remotelysensed (talk) 15:43, 17 October 2013 (UTC)