...all you had to do was say Jáchymov

From the mines of Jáchymov to the Memory of the Nation

"I loved the smell of the dirt as a child, the boys and I would paddle in the nearby creek. Now the water-soaked dirt made it difficult to shovel. I eagerly bent down to my dirty work so as not to attract the warden's evil eye. "Number 16,953 won't slack off, you don't meet the standards, we'll lock you up when you turn black. '"
In the 1950s, Miroslav Hampl had to compulsorily join heavy industry for a year. Youth construction, Ostrava mines or Jáchymov? He chose the third option, believing that he would be able to escape to the West. However, he helped another prisoner to escape in the mine and this sentenced him to three years of hard labour in the uranium mines. Broken health, amnesty, involvement in normal life. He did not receive rehabilitation until he was awarded the Commemorative Badge of the Resistance and Resistance against Communism in 2013. And six years later he received the Memory of the Nation Award. However, this did not restore his health and did not erase the frightening experiences.