The radioactive 'capital' of the world - BBC REEL 

My father was a political prisoner in Jáchymov too. He luckily avoided the mining of uranium, he was later moved to work in mines near Horni Slavkov. He was releases in 1959 after 7 years. He said that many people would crawl in narrow mines and get the uranium with bare hands, for extra benefits, including money, but as you say, they did not to live long.

Nahhh. Its okay to hold the uranium with bare hands. From a chemical point of view, uranium is a heavy metal and about as toxic as lead. Touching it won't really do anything to you. Ingesting or inhaling it would be bad, but as long as you don't have any cuts on your hands and wash them when you're done you're unlikely to have any problems. Cheers.

@Evi1M4chine It's an Ore.

Evi1M4chine just dont talk when you were skipped your chemistry class. Or worst, didnt learnt at all

unless you didnt start chain reaction it is harmless.

It's just stone, you have to do many things with that stone to make it "glowing" :-D

It really isn't a risk, as the physician said the dose is equivalent to one x-ray (I think he's referring to a CAT scan, but still).

Don't believe every physician, i rather believe the scientists that have actual proof not some suposed "physician" that tells you to bathe in radio active water because it's good for you...

I know one man which going to spa Jachymov every year for last 30 years. He is absolutely healthy( i think no cancer ) and his joints hurt less. I was there once. I have morbus bechterev. The doctor before I go to the spa did testing me, because for people with tumors or after cancer are these baths dangerous. I hope you ok now

There have been positive results in small doses of radioactive substances. Also there was a Japanese scientist who in his statement said"felt 10 years younger"after being exposed to radiation accidentally and went on experimenting for a long time. The way i see it someday we might figure out a positive way to use it and not just blow stuff up with it.

We are constantly surounded by all sorts of radioactivity: From the earth, the sun and also from the whole universe around us. After almost 500 million years of evolution, organic life is perfectly capeable to deal with a normal level of radioactivity.

Nativeson That means nothing. I could easily tell you my friend of a friend did whatever and feels great. Anecdotes are not evidence.

Nope. I don’t remember being relaxed and rejuvenated after getting an X-ray 🧐 if it’s the same level of radiation then how would someone feel anything different.

Do you really think well over a 100 years ago that they knew the true effects of radiation are? We still don't know the extent other than it is dangerous.

It is not a legend of Jachymov, but reality, but compared to other russian working gulags, it was quite comfortable there, my father said. They had much more food than before, when my father was in a group, starting with 100 prisoners of war and surviving only 6 (some went into hospital and may have survived too.).

I´m truly sorry for that. Was he send to Jáchymov?

My grand dad almost died there.

@@samosat It´s horrible. What´s worse some old people in Jáchymov still follow the communist rule not to talk about the camp.

@@vojtechkutilek3062 Yep, sent to Jáchymov in 1952, before that spent some time in Pankrác. Sentenced for 20 years for being part of some anti-communist party.

I heard about the uranium mines and the prisin labor camp as a child... I wasn't very interested in history then.. I had snowy hills and skiing on my mind when I was in Jarymov in 90s and early 2000.

Everything was mined by Soviets, there is almost nothing left, US liberators would not find anything there. :-D

Her name is Maria SKŁODOWSKA Curie. Get that right. No excuses. Just get her name right. I dont care that you dont get the pronunciation right. She was Polish.

@@mariog8297 Marie Curie is her name

But from the former German name of Jachymov, Joachimstal. Because the Erzgebirge (literally "Ore Mountains") in which the city is located was so heavily mined for silver used for coins during the Late Middle Ages to early modern times many were made there and people began calling these coins "Joachimstaler" (Joachim's taler (dollar)). Combined with the local Saxon dialect it began sounding more like "toaler" and it eventually turned into the "dollar" when adopted by the English language. "Taler" also frequently appeared in old German fairy tales or other fictional stories used as a universal name for a currency many hundreds of years ago which could further explain the popularity of the word and how it was adopted by Americans.

@@freakysnuke2571 One very small correction, and I may be wrong myself because I am not a German speaker: I understand "Joachimstaler" to mean basically "of Joachimstal," where the name of the town means Joachim's valley(?). So when you then translate that to "Joachim's taler," I know that it helps to show the etymology but I am not really sure that it's correct or necessary. It seems that people just started referring to this coinage to "Joachimstaler," similar to how doughnuts are known outside of Berlin as "Berliner." Then some people started shortening this to "taler," which as you explained eventually became "dollar." Anyway, thank you very much for the information, I love learning about linguistics / etymology. It's amazing how much of our history can be learned just through the tracing of words.

@Evi1M4chine interesting, thanks

Shine does not mean "reflect"!! The sun shines...

That is rubbish!

yeah, except for the fact that many nazis actually loved their own people and really wanted a bright future for them. The ideological socialists in the Soviet Union were killed during a political action made by Stalin in the 1930s, so the only communists left were the bad ones.

Justin Marion he’s saying about the Soviet system and leaders, not the Soviet people. Stalin killed more Soviet people than Hitler did.

@@OkimeOlvx A good communist sound like"a good Nazi" Did it occur to you?

Well... in fact: Mao was the biggest mass murder of all time. Followed by Stalin and Hitler is third. I do not want to defend Hitler or the Nazis, nor anyone else. Just to clarify.

Difference is that nazis did all crimes in only few years, soviets had more than 70 years for that. So their crimes can be comparable, but in nazism, it was much more intense in that few years of terror.

Learn; how? To use!! Punctuation: : before. You'''use;. It?.

Aren't you special.

so much cringe in one sentence

@@toseltreps1101 k

Don't forget that the soviets were the greatest force against the Nazi's in WW2, 8.6 million soviet soldiers died fighting the war, yet the allies get all the credit.

@San Diago I wouldnt except anything more from viewers of such a communist propaganda channel like BBC

@San Diago The soviets were not any better. You should read some history books which are not communist propaganda. Read about the polish officers at Katyń. Read about the soviet crimes on polish citizens in Eastern Poland when Soviet Russia started World War 2 in September of 1939 (alongside with Nazi Germany). I hope your grandfather would be deported into the soviet union and forced into slave labour for many years.If the Germans wouldnt have attacked the soviet union I would probably not even be able to write this comment, because that was the only chance for all the polish prisoners to get released, because the soviets were in big danger because the Wehrmacht was so close to capturing the main cities.

@San Diago I wonder if you would write such stupid comments if your grandfather would be sent to slave labour by Soviet Russia.

@San Diago The end of the war was very unfair too. Soviet Russia has stolen Eastern Poland and forced many people into slave labour, and they stole the eastern part of Germany like wtf how ridiciolous can you be to steal land like that. They were stealing land from the polish farmers too because they wanted everybody to be equally poor. Yes,there was land redistribution but this was a terrible idea.

Hey, some people are deaf and they also want to know the content.

@@muhammadrajendra6386 then they are able to turn the subtitles on wtf youre dump? xD

I’m more impressed how many people speak English there.

Your comment made you sound stupid

@@Lukas-po6zd not all video has that "caption" option. It has to be made by the content creator which some are lazy.