All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S06E06.The.Killer.in.the.Castle.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.en

Narrator: Four huge scaffolds

Dominating
a remote alaskan mountain.

Meigs: These structures don't
look super technological.

They're like giant billboards.

But, they were part of what was,
in its day,

The most sophisticated
technology we had.

Narrator:
A war-torn ruin, left standing

In the shadow of north korea.

Nusbacher:
If you went into the building,

You would, quite possibly,

Come out in a box.

And if you came out upright,

You might come out
shattered beyond sanity.

Narrator: A medieval castle
that became the playground

Of a vengeful killer.

Auerbach: So, either
the bloody countess

Was a stone-cold mass murderer
of young girls,

Or she was a powerful,
but innocent woman,

Framed by her
unscrupulous rivals.

♪

Decaying relics,

Ruins of lost worlds,

Forged through years of toil,

Now haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪

Narrator:
Slovakia in central europe,

60 miles from the capital city.

Here lies a castle and the scene

Of one of the bloodiest scandals
of 17th century europe.

Barratt:
Looking up onto the hillside,

Clearly, man has made
its mark here

In a very fortified,
defensive kind of way.

Auerbach: It doesn't seem big
enough to be a fort

And, dare I say it,

It's not grand enough
to be a palace.

Narrator: Two towers loom
over the grounds.

One leads into
a 10-foot-deep pit.

Auerbach: It's a hole
in the ground.

It looks like a dungeon.

Narrator:
The other tower is reduced

To just one perilous
standing wall.

Barratt: This isn't just nature
that's destroyed this.

There's been some kind of
deliberate effort to.

Narrator: The perimeter walls,
lined with canon battlements,

Suggest a violent past.

Auerbach: If you're expecting
uninvited guests,

This is the perfect spot to be.

It looks like it's ready
for an attack.

Narrator: The events that took
place here became folklore,

Then legend --

A reminder that history
is written by the victors.

It's the year 1610

And echoing
from the basement of the castle

Are the most blood
curdling screams.

Young women are suffering
unbearable torture

At the hands of a psychopath.

Narrator: Marcela bednarova
grew up hearing

The stories of the castle.

Selwood: The girls were made
to stand naked

In the cold cellar for days.

Auerbach: The rumors surrounding
this place

Are extremely disturbing,

And we don't know
exactly what happened here,

But everyone who knows something
about this place

Agrees that it was terrible.

Narrator:
This is cachtice castle,

Originally built
in the 13th century

To defend the border
of the hungarian empire.

For generations,
the castle was traded

Between warring noble families
until 1604

When a countess
called elizabeth báthory

Changed the castle
and the town forever.

When elizabeth,
in her early 40s as a widow,

Moved full-time into the castle,

She must've appeared
unbelievably glamorous

To the local villagers
with their hard lives.

She had this sort of youthful
glow about her.

Narrator:
Elizabeth inherited the castle
upon the death of her husband,

A member of
the powerful nádasdy family.

She inherited all of his
property and suddenly,

She was the head
of a wealthy, noble household,

Possibly one of the most
powerful single women

In hungary at the time

In a period when women
were largely treated

As second-class citizens.

Narrator:
As countess of cachtice,

Elizabeth invited young women
into these rooms

To sweep the floors
and cook her meals.

Barratt: In her 40s, she's there

Offering a school, basically,

For other young noblewomen.

It wasn't uncommon.
It was a normal thing to do --

To go and live
with another family

And learn how to housekeep,

How to prepare for marriage
and life ahead.

Narrator: But events were about
to show the true cruelty

Of the 17th century
hungarian nobility.

Auerbach:
Rumors started to circulate --

The girls
who went to cachtice castle

Didn't always come back.

Narrator:
On December 29, 1610,

A squad of soldiers
stormed through the castle gate

And searched the grounds.

Selwood:
One of them was already dead,

But the other still had
just enough life force

To point the finger
at her killer, elizabeth.

Narrator:
The young widow may have been
a woman in a man's world,

But she also had
a reputation for barbarism.

Auerbach: It's said that she
physically hurt her students

For minor infractions,

Like folding the sheets wrong
or spilling water,

Even for just looking at her
the wrong way.

Barratt:
The punishments ranged --
well, the stories say --

Everything from just
a slap around the face

To drawing blood,

And then it got more
and more gruesome.

Supposedly, she would prick them
with sewing needles.

She bit them
until she drew blood.

She smeared honey on them

And exposed them
to bees and ants.

Cut them with scissors.

Scald them with hot metal bars.

Leaving girls out in the cold
to freeze to death.

Narrator: And one of her
most notorious acts

Happened inside
the castle's dungeon.

Auerbach: The girls were made
to stand naked

In the cold cellar for days.

When they were let out,

Some of them
could barely even walk,

And they were killed
very soon afterwards.

Selwood:
It's said that elizabeth báthory

Killed up to 600 young girls.

She literally has a guinness
world record for it.

Narrator: The rumors
of elizabeth's savagery

Go all the way back
to her childhood.

She came from a family
notorious for its alcoholism,

Incest, and sexual deviancy.

When she was young, she suffered
from terrible migraines,

Which her family diagnosed
as demonic possession.

It's said that she even bathed
in the blood of her victims.

That might explain
the youthful complexion.

Narrator: With the finger
pointed at the countess,

The soldiers arrested elizabeth.

She was tried and banished
to her castle tower

For the rest of her days.

The tyranny of the
bloody countess was over.

But not everything
is as it seems

In this grim fairytale.

♪

Narrator:
In 17th century hungary,

A countess
is imprisoned for murder,

Giving rise to a legend.

But while the dungeon lies
at the heart of this story,

Something remains amiss.

There's one thing that doesn't
quite add up here.

Out of an alleged
600 or more

Victims of elizabeth,

We haven't found a single grave

Or a single skeleton.

Nothing.

The man who arrested her
and found all the bodies,

Just so happened
to be head of a rival house

In the neighboring province,

Which is unreliable
and suspicious.

Elizabeth was clever,
she was literate,

She could speak four languages,

But she was also a woman

And a missive target
on her back.

Selwood:
Looking at this as a lawyer,

Despite concerns
over the evidence,

I can't help but think

That there was something
ghastly going on in that castle.

It's very rare that there's
any smoke without fire.

So, either elizabeth báthory,

The bloody countess,

Was a stone-cold mass murderer
of young girls,

Or she was a powerful,
but innocent woman,

Framed by her
unscrupulous rivals.

We may never know for sure.

♪

Narrator: The castle stood
for another 100 years,

Until it was sacked
in a rebellion.

What remains is now open
to tourists,

Seeking to learn about
the legend

Of elizabeth báthory.

♪

In the remote northwest
of alaska,

A cluster of constructions loom

Over a barren landscape.

♪

Only 150 miles from russia,

Sit these curved,
steel monoliths

On the crest of anvil mountain.

Meigs: There's not a tree,
there's not a -- barely a bush,

And rising up
on the top of this hill

Are these four huge structures.

They almost look like
some warped salvador dali idea

Of a billboard.

Nusbacher:
It's almost like they've left

A segment of a modern art
museum,

Propped up by

Some kind of scaffolding,

Right here
in the middle of nowhere.

Narrator: Their simple form

Belies their once crucial
function.

It was very top secret.
I mean, it was high, you know,

High security up there

Because this was
all cutting-edge technology.

When you think about it
for a second, it's clear,

It's some sort
of communication device.

Whether it's for radar
or microwaves or something,

But it's not clear what exactly.

♪

Richard beneville is the mayor
of the nearby town of nome,

And this site holds
a particular resonance for him.

Sometimes I feel like it's
walking among the pyramids.

I'm very proud sometimes
of what mankind can do.

I feel a sense of pride.

I know that this site worked.

Narrator: Their need can be
traced back to the 19th century

When alaska became
american property,

A time when russia and the u.S.
Were allies.

At the time that the u.S.
Purchased alaska from russia,

It was a very good investment.

I don't think anybody
anticipated

That russia would become
our biggest geopolitical foe.

Narrator:
In 1949, the soviet union
shocked the world

When it detonated
its first atomic bomb

At a test site in kazakhstan.

The fear of soviet attack

Was now palpable
through the cold war era.

I knew, every night
I went to bed,

That the planes
on the flight line

Had the bombs in them 24/7,

Ready to go in about
a five-minute notice.

That was the cold war

To this 18-year-old kid.

Narrator: But back in the 1950s,
the problem in alaska

Was how to communicate
an incoming threat

And respond accordingly.

If your radar detected

Soviet bombers

On their way to bomb america,

You'd want to tell somebody
right away.

And the problem here

Was that all they had

Was old-fashioned copper-wire
telephone technology.

Meigs: There's no roads over
most of the state.

There's no telegraph wires.
There's no telephone wires.

At one point, from nome,

They could only send
one telephone call at a time.

Somara: Huge distances made
communication difficult.

Even high frequency signals
would fizzle out

When the northern lights
appeared.

Narrator:
Telecommunications function
strictly by line of site,

So the rapid transmission
of information

Over long distances
was impossible.

A new communications
infrastructure was imperative,

But what technology
could effectively deal

With this latest threat?

♪

Narrator:
Near nome in northwest alaska

Are four confounding structures

Brought in during the cold war,

To deal with a communications
black hole.

Alaska has a really
interesting place

In the history of the cold war

Because it is so close to russia

And it's so close
to the north pole.

Auerbach:
At the end of world war ii,

Alaska's defenses
were focused on fighting

A southern foe,

Not one that was coming over
the north pole.

Narrator: If soviet bombers
came over the horizon,

There was no effective
warning system in place.

A solution was found
with this --

White alice --

A radio station
with an extensive air force

Telecommunications network.

They were part of the dew line.

The dew line which collected
information

Actually from
the top of scotland

All the way across
the north atlantic,

Iceland, greenland, canada,

Keeping track,
keeping a radar net

Over the north pole.

Narrator: Their name is widely
believed to be an acronym --

White for the snow-covered
location

And alice, which stands for

Alaska integrated communications
and electronics.

A typical white alice site
consists of four dishes,

Grouped in pairs,

To receive and transmit signals

To and from
neighboring stations.

Since they couldn't just send a
radio signal in a straight line

To the next receiver --
it was too far away --

They would aim it up
at an angle into the sky,

Where it would bounce off
a layer of the atmosphere --

It would bounce
of the troposphere --

And then come back down
hundreds of miles away

And be received
at the other end.

Narrator: The system is called

Forward propagating
tropospheric scatter.

Tropospheric scattering
has many advantages

Over other technologies

Because bouncing signals
off the atmosphere

Means that the hubs
don't need a clear line of site,

Which is particularly
advantageous

In the mountainous regions
of alaska.

This process meant that
white alice sites

Could be 200 miles apart.

They could also handle multiple
phone calls at the same time

And, crucially for the military,

They were secure.

A transmission beamed
from one spot

Could only be received

At another precise spot,

And that made it virtually
impossible to intercept.

Narrator:
This network of linked sites

Would be crucial for the various
cold war threats.

Meigs: Across northern alaska,

There were a whole range
of stations,

Designed to detect, first,
incoming bombers and then later,

As missiles
became a bigger threat,

Radar systems to detect

Whether missiles
had been launched

And were headed to
the heartland of the u.S.

Narrator: The 31 original
white alice sites

Took three years to build,

With the first station
operational in 1956.

But constructing these vast
antennas was no easy task.

Beneville: We're about 700 miles
to the nearest highway.

We're about 750 miles
from anchorage.

So, we are way out there,
right where

The bering straight and russia
almost meet.

Meigs: So, to build
these installations,

They had to not just fly in
equipment,

They used dog sleds.

They were really out there

In primitive, brutal conditions.

The enemy was time and weather.

Hundreds of tons of metal
had to be brought in by air.

This was a steel jigsaw puzzle

That had to be assembled quickly
and effectively

And had to be strong enough

To withstand the extremes
of alaskan storms.

Narrator: It was the latest
and most sophisticated

Telecommunications
technology in the world.

The u.S. Even connected hawaii
and the philippines

Through the pacific
scatter system.

But the biggest impact
was on alaska itself.

It unified the region in ways

That no other technology
could've done.

Narrator: However, construction
was extremely expensive.

The total bill came to
a staggering $300 million.

Somara: Initially, they thought
they needed six people

And 25 kilowatts
to operate the site.

But actually, in the end,
they needed 20 people

And about 120-180 kilowatts
of electrical power

Just to operate the system.

Narrator: Before white alice
was even complete,

A new technology arrived
to replace it.

It's a bit ironic that,
by the time white alice

Was becoming operational

In 1957, 1958,

Sputnik was up in the sky.

Satellite communications came in

And that wound up being
a much more reliable system

That didn't depend on these

Remote installations
of antennas,

You know, manned by these
small groups of guys,

Freezing their butts off
on the tundra,

You know, year in and year out.

♪

Was it successful?

I think you'd have to say "yes"

Because it has allowed us
to get to where we are today,

Which is a lot.

Narrator: White alice remained
in use until the 1970s

As a civilian phone network

And in some cases,
due to their secure nature,

The military still uses

Tropospheric scattering networks
even today.

♪

At the northern-most limits
of south korea

Is a troubled region,

Littered with the ruins
of a conflicted past.

The demilitarized zone between
north korea and south korea

Is actively dangerous.

This is not some historic relic.

There is almost a war going on

Across this piece of ground
today.

Bell: From up on top of a hill,
you can see into north korea

And this place
is right in the shadow of that.

Narrator: Gutted and scarred,

This shell of a structure
has a clear story to tell.

The building's
not just derelict,

It's been completely devastated.

You can see that the only thing
that's holding it in place

Is these modern
reinforcement bars.

Bell: This isn't a place
that was slowly left to decay.

It feels like this was a target.

Narrator: But while it dominates
its surroundings,

It appears to be out of place.

Someone has taken

Some stalinist architecture

And dropped it

Right here on the korean border.

And because of that stalinist
architecture,

You can tell

That this is a communist,

North korean edifice.

Why is it ruined,

And why is it here
in south korea?

Narrator: Following years
of japanese occupation,

At the end
of the second world war,

Authority over the korean
peninsula was split in two.

The soviets grabbed
the northern half

And the americans,

Who were in the process
of occupying japan,

Grabbed the southern half.

Bell: They divided the country
up on the 38th parallel,

A line of latitude,

And this created a very crude

North-south border on the map.

Narrator: This building sits
in the area of cheorwon,

Positioned just 40 miles above
that line of demarcation.

Local resident mr. Kim
grew up in this area,

His family having lived
through the unrest

That soon followed the
construction of this building.

[ speaking korean ]

Translator: This is
the labor party building.

It's actually
the cheorwon county branch

Of the labor party.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator: When this area came
under communist rule in 1946,

This was built as
the local headquarters

For the communist government.

Narrator: Dominating the area,

This structure clearly set out
the party's aim

Of commanding
over the local people.

Kim: [ speaking korean ]

Translator: Now, this is
a three-story building

While all the other buildings
in the area

Were single-story,
wooden structures.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator: And it sits on top
of a high platform.

The building was actually built
upon a raised level,

So it must have looked very
daunting for the locals here.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator:
This building epitomized
the authority of communism.

[ korean continues ]

Narrator: But the north
weren't only interested

In ruling
over the local population.

They had ambitious plans
for this place.

Kim: [ speaking korean ]

Translator:
Cheorwon was the largest city

Near to the 38th parallel.

That's why they built
the party headquarters here.

North korea ruled
the surrounding area from here,

But they also used it
to help prepare

For the attack on the south.

Narrator:
The north's ultimate aim

Was to take control
of the entire korean peninsula.

♪

Narrator:
Near the border of north korea,

Stand the remains

Of the local
communist party headquarters.

Now on the edge
of the demilitarized zone,

It was once
at the heart of the action.

Selwood: Cheorwon was an
incredibly tense border town,

For the simple reason
that it was a staging post

For the north korean troops.

So here,
there would've been massed

A vast number of forces,

And that made this
a very tense place.

Narrator: Backed by stalin,

At the head of this
north korean communist regime,

Was kim il-sung.

Kim il-sung tries to replicate

Stalin's dictatorship

In north korea,

And that means that
the north korean dictatorship

Is centralized,

Is brutal, and is ready

To repress the individual

In the interests of the state

And the ruling party.

Selwood:
With the arrival of kim il-sung,

Who had served
in the soviet army in the war,

Things really began to change
and the peninsula

Went on
to effectively a war footing.

Narrator:
For those living in cheorwon,

Having the local party
headquarters on their doorstep

Could be
a terrifying proposition.

Old rumors
of the internal goings on

Still persist to this day.

-[ speaking korean ]
-back then, for the people here,

This was a very
mysterious place.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator: It's said that those
people who opposed communism

Or the rules of the land

Were dragged in here
to be tortured and killed.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator: But the problem we
face, looking at this today,

Is that the people
who were responsible

For the atrocities here
have all returned to the north.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator:
And there are no records left
to confirm these stories.

[ korean continues ]

Narrator: Outside of this
building, in the wider context,

Kim il-sung soon saw
an opportunity

To assert his dominance
over the whole peninsula.

In 1950, on the 25th of June,

The north korean army

Rolls across the 38th parallel,

Knocks the south korean army

Almost out of the way.

The northerners blazed their way
down the peninsula,

In the end cornering
the southern forces

Into just one small pocket.

Nusbacher:
The south korean army,

The american occupation force,

They're all in one town,

In pusan in the south.

It looks like it's all over
for south korea.

Narrator: With their backs
against the wall

And a communist victory
appearing likely,

U.S. Forces
led by general macarthur

Set about turning the tables

With an invasion
deep behind enemy lines.

Nusbacher: The other thing
the united states does --

The united states
internationalizes

The korean war.

The americans get the u.N.
To come in

On the american
and south korean side,

And they undo the successful

North korean invasion
of the south.

Narrator: Quickly, southern
forces regained control

And moved rapidly north,

Soon pushing past cheorwon.

But for those
held prisoner here,

It was too late.

Nearby, the ruins of a water
treatment facility

Now stand as a marker

To how those individuals
met a tragic end.

[ speaking korean ]

Translator: So, after the war,

The bodies of many people
were found here

And this has become a very
harrowing place in cheorwon.

Nusbacher: The north korea
leadership were very concerned

That in their retreat, they did
not want enemies of the people,

As they called them, to survive.

Kim: [ korean continues ]

Translator:
In cheorwon, there are a lot
of scars left from the war,

But this is the place
where numerous prisoners

And civilians were killed
before the communist army

Were driven out
and fled the area.

[ korean continues ]

Translator: This is
a heartbreaking place

Which will never be forgotten
by the people of cheorwon.

[ korean continues ]

Bell: The people they'd been
holding prisoner

Down in the building in town,

Were brought to this other site,

Where they were murdered.

In total, around 300 people

Were killed in this massacre.

Narrator:
With the war raging on,

The destruction of cheorwon
crept ever closer.

And as the largest structure
in the area,

This building would soon
become a key target.

Hidden in plain site
on the steps is the clue

To what would cause the
final destruction of this site.

♪

Narrator: During the korean war,
the area of cheorwon,

Near the 38th parallel,

Turned into a brutal war zone,

And in 1950,

As the southern forces advanced,

The old communist party
headquarters

Became firmly fixed
in the cross-hairs.

The violence of that time
is clearly written

All across what remains.

Kim: [ speaking korean ]

Translator: These marks are from
the tracks of a u.S. Army tank,

Which came up here
to destroy the building.

[ korean continues ]

Translator: I think destroying
the labor party building

Was intended
as a show of strength.

This was the local headquarters
of the north korean army,

Who were the enemy.

Narrator: While it defiantly
remained standing,

This structure
and the surrounding town

Soon faced an end game.

Just a few months
after taking the area,

The southern forces were being
pushed back, out of cheorwon.

Nusbacher: The one thing
that you can't allow

Is this
politically-important symbol

To fall into enemy hands.

So you burn the place
to the ground.

The whole town burns,
except for one thing --

That building that looms
over the town.

Narrator: In 1953,
an armistice was signed,

Ending the fighting,

And a new border was drawn up

Just a few miles
to the north of this building.

♪

The ruins now serve
as a reminder of the past

And a symbol of hope
for the future.

[ speaking korean ]

Translator: We must not forget
what needs to be remembered.

Also, it's a crucial task
for the two koreas,

As one people, to reunify

And achieve prosperity together.

♪

♪

Narrator: In northern czechia,

Six miles from the border
with germany,

Is a countryside haven
with a sordid history.

Here is a lovely valley

With well-maintained
woodlands --

No doubt, a clean stream
running through it

And pretty towns
at suitable intervals.

This is very much a czech valley

With all the signs

Of decades of happiness.

Narrator: In amongst the trees
is a complex of buildings

That now lay empty.

Rooms take up entire floors

And there are hundreds
of metal columns,

Keeping the ceilings up.

Something very heavy
used to be kept on these floors.

Nusbacher:
These were once grand,

Efficient factories
of some kind,

And now they're abandoned,
they're overgrown.

Why would you build something
this expensive

And walk away from it?

Narrator: Behind the buildings
are clues to a history

The locals would rather forget.

And rambling around
through these woods

And past these buildings,
we see a river --

You know, a water source --
we see smoke stacks,

So clearly, this was
an industrial site of some sort.

Nusbacher: You can see
the remains of a camp,

And you can see a big chimney
next to that camp,

And that's never gonna be
good news.

Narrator:
And, at the center of it all,

Is a gateway that guards
a terrible secret.

You arrive at this rock face,

And you see this huge metal door

Hiding something
inside this rock face.

And you wonder, "well, that
looks like a lot of security."

Narrator: What happened
in this remote outpost

And what is behind
that big, metal door?

♪

In the 19th century,
a building was put here

To take advantage
of a new wonder material.

Local author petr joza has
explored every inch of the site.

Joza: [ speaking czech ]

Translator: We are in one of the
halls of company franz preidel.

The building was constructed
in 1867

As one of three
in rabstejn valley

To produce cotton.

In this building,
there were 16,000 spindles.

Individual spinning machines
stood in between these pillars.

It was one of the biggest
factories in this area.

Narrator:
This is rabstejn jánská,

A factory that produced cotton
on an industrial scale.

But this was more than
a business,

It was the bread basket
of a community.

Joza: [ speaking czech ]

Translator:
There were several generations
working in this factory.

[ speaking czech]

Translator: The factory
was hugely beneficial

For the local economy

Because the company used
the money they made here

To finance several things.

They had schools built in
the area, had a chapel restored,

And that's all thanks to the
profit from these factories.

[ czech continues ]

Narrator: But the factory's
benevolent appearance

Is betrayed by an ominous
feature within its grounds.

Then you see the big metal door

And you have to ask,

"what did you build here?

What are you trying to keep
in the ground,

Or what are you
trying to keep out?"

Somara: Inside this building,
when you look closely,

You start to see clues

That this place might not have
been so friendly, after all.

Narrator:
In the early 20th century,

Business was booming
at rabstejn jánská.

But in 1929,
the market collapsed.

In the late 1920s,

A depression begins

All across central
and eastern europe,

Which has devastating effects
on manufacturing

And on the economies

Of eastern europe in general.

Hundreds of workers

Who relied on their jobs here
for their livelihood,

They're all out of work.

Narrator:
The old factory is shut down

And for over a decade,
the buildings lay dormant.

But in 1942, the factory comes
under new management --

The nazis.

♪

Narrator:
At the height of world war ii,

A former countryside cotton mill

Was about to be assimilated

Into the nazi war machine.

And the germans had always
looked kind of hungrily

At bohemia.

The germans, you know,
first nibbled at the sudetenland

And then they take
all of czechoslovakia

In the course of 1938, '39.

Narrator: The nazis occupy
rabstejn jánská,

But they have different plans
for the old factory.

Cotton production was low
on the list of nazi priorities.

What they really needed
more than anything was aircraft.

Narrator:
Half a mile from the factory

Is what remains
of the nazis' plan

To send aircraft production
into overdrive.

The german economy has to be
kept going,

And the german war machine
has to be supplied.

And one of the ways
the nazis do this

Is by conscripting
people into labor.

Narrator: They constructed
a labor camp.

Joza: [ speaking czech ]

Translator: We are at
rabstejn concentration camp,

Which was established in 1944

For approximately
690 to 700 prisoners.

Joza: [ czech continues ]

Because they couldn't find
enough workers,

Prisoners were brought here
and the buildings

Were surrounded
by barbed, electric wire.

[ czech continues ]

Narrator: Prisoners were marched
from the camp

To the factory and back

In an unending, brutal cycle.

But events hundreds
of miles away

Would turn this nightmare
into a living hell.

Between the 20th and the 25th
of February, 1944,

The allies bombed the hell

Out of nazi
fighter plane production.

Translator:
Germany definitely lost control
over its own airspace,

So they established jaegerstab.

It was a task force

Designed to decentralize
fighter aircraft production

And move it underground.

♪

The manpower required was huge.

Effectively, they treated
people like slaves.

Digging those holes
was nasty work.

They used dynamite
and pick axes.

You wouldn't want
that assignment.

Narrator: The nazis commissioned
four tunnels to be dug

Into the rock face.

They blast almost
83,000 square meters of space,

Carved out of the rock

Underneath these old
19th-century textile mills.

Narrator: So desperate was
the nazi air force

That they moved
in factory machines

While prisoners kept digging.

Somara: The noise, the fumes,
the lack of daylight --

It would've been like
digging your own hell.

Joza: [ speaking czech ]

Translator: So, here we are
at a shaft's crossing

Where, during excavation,
part of the ceiling collapsed.

Joza: [ czech continues ]

Translator: Three prisoners from
the concentration camp died

When the ceiling fell on them.

Joza: [ czech continues ]

They were essentially
worked to death

In these underground factories.

Narrator: By January 1945,

Germany was months away
from losing the war,

But the prisoners underground
didn't know it.

People kept working,
suffering, dying,

Not just for an evil cause

But for a lost cause.

Narrator: But just weeks before
tanks roll into berlin,

The prisoners at rabstejn jánská

Get a glimmer of hope
from above.

The first news they have
that the war is almost over

And that they will probably
survive the war,

Is in March of 1945

When a soviet plane flies
overhead

And five paratroopers jump out

And land without any german
resistance.

Narrator: Then, on may 8th,
without warning or announcement,

The prison guards
began to disappear.

The first they knew

That the germans
who were holding them captive

Had lost the war,
was when the german guards

Just didn't turn up
for work that day.

The army was on its way
to liberate them.

The nazis had taken off
to avoid being captured.

-[ speaking czech ]
-we're at the end of the shaft

Where you can see three rows
of drilling for dynamite.

The demolition charges were
placed in these and blasted.

They did not do it here

Because this is the place
where excavating stopped

At the end of world war ii,

Because the second polish army
arrived,

And the construction of the
underground factory was stopped.

And all the laborers
at rabstejn could do

Was put down their pick axes

And start trying to figure out
how to get home.

♪

Narrator: Rabstejn jánská --

The factory that began
in paradise

And ended in a nightmare.

Today, the factory buildings
have been reclaimed

By the community
that lives here.

The camp and the tunnels

Are locked away
and left to crumble.