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Jachimov is an idyllic resort town in the Bohemian mountains. But the town of Jachimov, known in the past as Joachimsthal, also has a long and amazing history and we will discover its hidden face. This is not the story of how the town became affluent due to the discovery of its rich silver mines in the Middle Ages, nor the story of how Marie Curie discovered the element radium in Joachimsthal and founded the atomic era. This film instead tells how, after the Second World War, Joachimsthal’s uranium mines meant hell on earth for 50,000 prisoners. During the 1950’s and 1960’s tens of thousands of Czechs, political prisoners, catholic priests and artists suffered and died in the uranium mines and 16 affiliated concentrations camps. Thousands of trains loaded with uranium travelled from this town in Bohemia to the farthest reaches of Russia, enabling Stalin to build the first soviet atomic bomb. After the mines were exhausted, all traces of the horrible events that had happened there were erased by the trappings of a budding tourist industry. Peter Heller excavates this forgotten history under the ski lifts, cafes and restaurants. (DOK.fest München)
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