As a form of torture, especially in the cold winter days when temperatures hit subzero temperatures, police officers poured water in the isolation cells. As such, prisoners punished in the cells had to go through not only the cold, but also exhaustion and insomnia, as they could not sit or sleep.
This is a sketch of the clothes warehouse, where prisoners would keep their work clothes and dress to get ready to go to the mine.The warehouse had cotton fur costumes, rubber boots, puttees, miner’s caps, etc.
In the pyrite area the daily rate for each working group was seven wagons. As such, the two carters of the group had to fill seven wagons of mineral. According to former prisoner Shkëlqim Abazi’s testimony, a wagon would take around 200 shovels of pyrite to fill. A shovelful of pyrite weighed from 18 to 25 kg. According to an average number, one wagon had around 3,600 kg of pyrite. This estimate would mean that the two carters had to fill seven wagons, or 25,200 kg of mineral per shift, or 12,600 kg of mineral each. Imagine the daily routine for this enslaving work where one man had to load 12,600 kg of mineral every day!
Beyond the grueling process of this mineral’s extraction, pyrite tunnels were far more dangerous than copper ones. The terrain was highly unstable due to the mineral’s acid sand-like composition, therefore collapses in pyrite tunnels were quite often. Furthermore, the acid environment made work all the harder. Acid drops that dripped ceaselessly in the tunnel not only eroded and burnt the prisoner’s unprotected skin; they also eroded and destroyed the rails on which prisoners had to push their wagons. This added on to the exhausting work: as the wagons had to be pushed for around one kilometer and the same distance back.
Family meetings were done according to a monthly schedule determined by prison command. Prisoners were entitled to meet their families twice a month for 15 minutes. Furthermore, they could send two letters a month to their families, whereas telegrams and cards were allowed with no limitation. Meetings were always done in the presence of wardens.
In certain periods, when discipline in the camp was exerted more aggressively and prisoners revolted more, violence and punishments also increased. In these cases, when several prisoners were punished at once, up to six or seven prisoners were put together in a single cell, who considering the very confined space of these cells, could not even sit or straighten their feet on the ground.
Only one pair of cotton twill pants, one shirt and one summer jacket were allowed in the cell. Late at night, isolated prisoners were provided with only one old blanket that was taken away in the morning. The light clothes and a thin and torn blanket were all they had to go through the extreme cold in subzero temperatures.