Throwing the mineral on heaps

After wagons were manually loaded, they were also pushed by hands for a distance of one kilometer to the exit of the tunnel on large heaps that were then transported through a mechanism on trucks. The prisoner returned to the work front with an empty wagon or wooden bodies with which he fortified the area of explosion, after all of the material was extracted.  The routine of description of this road with the wagon full of mineral and return to the front was done seven times per shift.

Re-convictions, a widespread phenomenon in Spaç

If a convict was serving the last days of his sentence, he was never sure he would really be released. It was not uncommon for Spaç convicts to be arrested in the camp, too, sent to the interrogation office at Rrëshen’s Interior Branch and be judged on all kinds of charges, such as escape attempt, agitation and propaganda, violence towards prison command etc. Charges were almost always trumped up and evidence was collected by spy inmates. The majority of re-convictions were for agitation and propaganda.

 End of the shift

The shift was considered complete only after opening the holes for the next shift. Afterwards, the three-prisoner group left the tunnel and prepared to return to the camp.  The first shift started at 7:00 am and ended at 3:00 pm. The second shift started at 3:00 and ended at 11:00. The third shift started at 11:00 and ended at 7:00 in the morning. This cycle was repeated every day. The brigades changed shifts once a week.

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Pyrite extraction

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.

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 Opening up holes for the next shift

Whereas the two carters continued the reinforcement process, the miner hammered holes to put the explosive in and then detonate it after exiting the mine.  All of the rocky mass exploded by the dynamite would be the new work front for the successive shift. The second shift would follow the same routine as the first and then leave the area for the third.

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Meeting the target at all costs, “Either your plan or your soul”
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Meeting the rates was often impossible. Few prisoners could physically handle that titanic load at work.  In many cases during the cave-ins in the tunnel, there was not enough mineral to fill seven wagons. But prison command never accepted any justification for not meeting the rate. The most common expression of officers in Spaç was “Either your plan (target) or your soul”, which implied that death awaited all those who didn’t give the regime whatever was required at all costs.

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