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00:00In Germany, a therapeutic country retreat
00:04commandeered for a disturbing goal.
00:07Gephardt becomes a credible contestant
00:11for the title of the most twisted Nazi doctor.
00:19In Malaysia, an engineering workhorse
00:22drawn into a colonial conflict.
00:25This is a story of conquest, greed and exploitation.
00:29And it doesn't end well.
00:33And a rural site in Texas that impacted the lives of millions
00:38for better and for worse.
00:41It wasn't until years later that I really understood
00:44what I had participated in.
00:47In the sleepy German town of Lucien, 70 miles north of Berlin,
01:01is a collection of magnificent buildings tainted by an unspeakable tragedy.
01:06We're away from the city here.
01:12We're out in the fresh air of the countryside.
01:15We've got charming German-looking buildings.
01:21It could be a boarding school.
01:24It could be a barracks.
01:26It could be a spa.
01:27I mean, you go down to the lower level,
01:29and there are these big sort of bathing pools.
01:31When you take a closer look, you start to see hints of what this place was.
01:36We see the tiled floors, the tiled walls.
01:44This place is designed so that whatever splatters on the walls
01:50can be scrubbed down and disinfected.
01:53It has all the hallmarks of an old hospital.
01:59Under the influence of a tyrannical regime,
02:02its function veered dangerously off course.
02:05Historically, this site has many layers,
02:08but it's the role it played during World War II
02:11that is particularly chilling.
02:16This was meant to be a place of healing.
02:20It turned into a place of terror.
02:24What happened here is the stuff of nightmares.
02:35The first day I was here in Lüchen,
02:37it was in the same weather as today.
02:39It's beautiful in the summer here.
02:41It's beautiful in the winter.
02:43Developer Max Siegmund bought this property in 2021.
02:48He was drawn to its potential as a peaceful retreat
02:52for busy Berliners.
02:54He also understood it is a site burdened by its past.
02:59For us, it's important that the history will not be forgotten.
03:03And we are responsible for this place, even the dark historic.
03:09In the beginning, its purpose couldn't have been more different.
03:13The facility was originally founded in 1902 by the German Red Cross
03:19to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis.
03:23People were breathing bad air and their lungs were becoming infected.
03:27It was believed that you had to remove them from the urban environment
03:31and get them into a clean place where they would breathe clean air.
03:34We have patient rooms with a lot of windows.
03:39They have a lot of space compared to modern hospital buildings.
03:43It was a very famous place.
03:46It was called the Hohenlushen Sanatorium.
03:50In the decades to come, it would become infamous.
03:53The history of this site was transformed by the activities of Dr. Karl Gebhardt.
04:04When he emerges in the 20s and 30s, he's seen as a very innovative surgeon.
04:08He served in the First World War.
04:10He became fascinated with treating battlefield injuries.
04:13After the First World War, there were these militias called Freikorps,
04:20of people who were trying to exert political power through violence.
04:27And Gebhardt and Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, were buddies from that period.
04:36And Gebhardt becomes someone who earns his credibility with the Nazis
04:44by having been in from the beginning.
04:47And so he's then recognized as being this leading surgeon by the Third Reich.
04:52Himmler adopts Dr. Karl Gebhardt as his personal physician.
04:59As Hitler consolidated his grip on power in the 1930s,
05:03he began removing Jewish people from positions of authority
05:07and replaced them with trusted Nazi allies.
05:10The Jewish physician that ran this sanatorium
05:13was one of those stripped of his role.
05:17In 1933, Gebhardt was given control of Hohenlushen.
05:23Under his leadership, it became the first sports medicine clinic in Germany.
05:28It was all part of the Nazi vision to create a superior master race.
05:33So, Karl Gebhardt was revolutionary in his methods.
05:38He believed in physiotherapy.
05:40He believed in treating the injured with open air and physical exercise.
05:46He's a sports scientist.
05:49He's all about taking sports injuries like a torn meniscus
05:55and repairing it and making excellent sports people better sports people.
06:02We are now in the operation rooms where the surgeries took place.
06:07And as you can see behind me, we have a glass window
06:09so trainee doctors could watch the operations.
06:13At the Berlin Olympics in 1936,
06:17Gebhardt got the chance to demonstrate his achievements to the world.
06:22Dr. Gebhardt became chief physician of the Olympic Games.
06:25And this facility became the main hospital for the Olympic athletes.
06:30The site here grows again in that time period.
06:33They built a swimming hole.
06:34They built a sports hole.
06:37The controversial games are best remembered for American sprinter Jesse Owens,
06:42winning a record of four gold medals.
06:45The Buckeye bullet stepped into his destined role
06:48to win in the phenomenal time of 10 and 250 seconds,
06:52breaking all existing world records.
06:57Yet Owens' triumph was not enough to stop the Germans
07:00from winning the most medals.
07:02And Gebhardt was lauded for the success.
07:06After the Olympic Games, Dr. Gebhardt's position rises.
07:10Next to Heinrich Himmler, all other high-ranked Nazi persons
07:15got their surgeries here.
07:16Even Hitler visited this place.
07:19But after the outbreak of World War II,
07:22Hohenluchin was turned into a military hospital.
07:26And the type of operations carried out here by Gebhardt
07:30would follow a much darker path.
07:33They are the kinds of activities that are so extraordinarily abhorrent
07:38that they stand against the very notion of what we think
07:43a doctor should be capable of doing.
07:52In Germany are the remains of a sports medicine hospital
07:56run by pioneering Nazi doctor Karl Gebhardt.
08:01Under his leadership, it would turn into hell on earth.
08:05It all started when a high-ranking SS official named Reinhard Heidrich
08:12was badly injured in an assassination attempt by the Czech resistance.
08:16They chuck a grenade into his car,
08:20and Heidrich's body is filled with bits of springs and dirt,
08:26and Heidrich is dying of sepsis.
08:30Who better to try to bring him back to life than Dr. Gebhardt?
08:39At the time, German doctors had access to an early antibiotic called sulfonamide.
08:46But Gebhardt was skeptical about its effectiveness and declined to use it.
08:50And so Heidrich dies. He might have died anyway. His injuries are pretty severe.
08:56But Gebhardt's rivals inside the Nazi states are saying,
08:59oh, you see, Gebhardt killed Heidrich because he wouldn't use sulfonamide on it.
09:03Gebhardt was facing ruin.
09:06He had to prove that his methods weren't the reason for Heidrich's death.
09:09Himmler advised him to conduct human experiments to prove that sulfonamide would not have saved Heidrich.
09:20Gebhardt gets women from Ravensbrück concentration camp.
09:25Women who are going to be killed by the Nazis anyway.
09:30He breaks their legs.
09:34He drives bits of wood and hair into their bodies.
09:43These poor victims fester for days on end as the infections develop and gangrene develops.
09:49Gebhardt then administered sulfonamide to some of the patients, leaving others as a control group.
09:56But the experiment was rigged to ensure Gebhardt got the results he wanted.
10:03Gebhardt creates a house of horrors.
10:08They are tortured to death with infection.
10:13In total, 84 women were put through this sickening ordeal.
10:1921 of them died either from infection or because they were murdered to cover up the evidence.
10:24But Gebhardt didn't stop there.
10:30His experiments continued.
10:33This time to treat amputee soldiers.
10:36He's basically takes concentration camp prisoners and he says,
10:43Hey, you know, this German soldier needs an arm.
10:45Why don't I just take your arm and try to attach it to this German soldier?
10:48The German authorities regarded all of these activities as justifiable because they regarded those that were being experimented on as being genetically and racially inferior.
11:00The terrible crimes perpetrated here continued until Stalin's Red Army defeated the Nazis at the Battle of Berlin in 1945.
11:12The Soviets then took control of Hohenlushin to use as an army hospital.
11:17But Karl Gebhardt's vile actions were not forgotten.
11:21Miraculously, many of the poor concentration camp inmates survived.
11:29And they would testify against him after the war when he was brought to justice at Nuremberg.
11:34Karl Gebhardt.
11:36They lived to see Gebhardt executed.
11:43Their character was stronger than the Nazi death machine.
11:49What happened at Hohenlushin will always be remembered.
12:00Now, Max Siegmann is working towards a brighter future.
12:05In the past, we have a dark history, but because of the beautiful architecture, it's worth setting this place.
12:12We will develop a wellness resort.
12:14We have holiday flats.
12:15It's a place for everybody here.
12:17In the Malaysian state of Perak is a technological heavyweight that helped build a nation.
12:35We're in a swampy tropical area.
12:40And this massive structure is floating in the middle of this body of water.
12:45It must be 200 feet long, five stories high.
12:49At first glance, it could be a giant fishing trawler, but there's only one problem with that.
12:54The ocean is over 30 miles away.
12:56In fact, this entire waterway is landlocked.
13:03How did this hulking beast get here in the first place?
13:08And what was it for?
13:10A cavernous interior lined with heavy machinery is the first piece of the puzzle.
13:16There are massive cogs.
13:17There are massive cogs, thick metal cables.
13:19These are all telltale signs of a massive industrial enterprise.
13:24On the front, you've got these huge rusting buckets, which seem to be designed for scooping stuff out of the ground.
13:31And you can only assume that was something valuable.
13:34It would transform the economy, making this place one of the most profitable countries ruled over by the British.
13:43The resource's incredible value also made it a target.
13:48We're talking invasion by the Japanese and violent attacks by communist guerrillas.
13:55All of which played their part in the downfall of the world's biggest empire.
14:00If you looked around this region half a century ago, you'd have seen over 50 machines like this dominating the landscape.
14:15Today, this rusting relic is one of the last.
14:19What we see here is a great example of taking an industry that had been around for over 100 years in a low-tech way,
14:26and then mechanize it, even supersize it.
14:30That industry was tin mining, and it was one of the reasons the British Empire became so powerful in the late 19th and early 20th century.
14:40To understand Britain's complex relationship with Malaysia, you have to rewind to the 1700s.
14:47Back then, Malaysia didn't exist, and this region was part of the Malay Peninsula,
14:53which consisted of multiple regional kingdoms.
14:57This was an era when much of Europe was trying to establish different empires.
15:02The British were desperate to get a foothold in Southeast Asia to protect and dominate trade with China.
15:08To do their dirty work, the monarchy used the services of the East India Company.
15:13The East India Company was possibly the most powerful corporation in history.
15:22The English Crown said you can have an exclusive contract to venture out there, trade with the natives, subdue them if you have to, and bring back anything of value.
15:32After that, it was only a matter of time before the empire's tentacles spread further across the region,
15:40until eventually they controlled all the Malay states and Singapore.
15:45This was classic colonialism, and for its time it was very, very successful.
15:50At first, the British made their money through taxation and trade.
15:55But that all changed after the discovery of large tin deposits in the mid-1800s.
16:01Tin is valuable partly because it resists rust very well.
16:07So when you hear the phrase tin can, it's not actually a can made of tin, it's a steel can coated with tin.
16:12Initially, the British leased the mining operations to the Chinese, who had fled from their own country to escape instability and poverty.
16:21Local museum curator Jackie Chu is an expert on the history of tin mining in this region.
16:28In the year of 1860, we have about 20,000 Chinese miners, and another 10 years down the road, 40,000 Chinese miners.
16:37In the early stage, the Chinese mining method basically is human labor intensive without any help of the machineries.
16:47Even so, they still produced a large amount of tin, which made the British a small fortune.
16:52About a quarter of the demand came from the United States of America in the late 1800s.
16:58The British soon realized they could get an even bigger share of the revenue by taking more control of the industry.
17:04And they knew that in order to maximize profits, they needed to mechanize.
17:13In Malaysia is a mechanical marvel central to the British Empire's plans to control one of the country's most valuable natural resources.
17:22It was called the Tanjung Tuolang Tin Dredge No. 5, or TT5 for short.
17:32This one first began operating in 1938.
17:36The dredge has a long series of large buckets connected on a chain that can roll down into the water, scoop up the material, and then bring it up and dump it inside the structure.
17:49This was then transported along the length of the dredge, where heavy machinery would separate out the valuable tin from the waste, which was dumped out of the bag.
17:59So, the purity of the tin ore would be as high as 70%.
18:08All this tin ore will be pumped out from these two outlets to this big metal bucket.
18:16It was a tough job with long hours, and in return, the workers were well paid, and their families received education and healthcare.
18:26But soon, the TT5 would grind to a sudden and dramatic halt.
18:33War was coming, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
18:38Many people believe that Japan's first major attack of World War II took place at Pearl Harbor.
18:45But 90 minutes earlier, the Japanese launched a surprise invasion of Malaya.
18:49The British troops were not remotely prepared for this attack.
18:56The British have wrong strategies to defend Malaya, because they always assumed the Japanese will be invading from the sea, from Singapore.
19:07Instead, the Japanese launched simultaneous operations, invading from the north of the country, near the Thai border.
19:15They then fought their way south, inflicting heavy losses as they went, despite their numerical inferiority.
19:24It was a total bloodbath.
19:28In the end, 85,000 troops were captured.
19:32Churchill described the defeat as the greatest disaster that has ever befallen British arms.
19:38One of the motives for the Japanese invasion was to take control of the tin industry, which they needed for their war effort and economic self-sufficiency.
19:48The British knew exactly what the Japanese were after, and did everything they could to destroy the tin mining operations as they retreated.
19:55The Japanese occupation lasted three and a half years until their surrender in 1945, after which the British quickly returned and rebuilt the mines.
20:09Yet there was a bigger issue they now had to face up to.
20:13The British Empire was dying, and its colonies could smell blood.
20:17The image of the British, the mighty British, start to crumble after the Japanese occupation in Malaya.
20:28In 1947, India gains independence from the British, and this sets off a chain reaction all over the empire.
20:35Malaya's multicultural population was a powder keg set to explode, and the tin mining industry would yet again be caught in the crossfire.
20:47So 37% of the country was Chinese, and they lived in the poorest conditions and had the fewest civil rights.
20:55The Communist Party of Malaya and their armed wing, the Malayan National Liberation Army, took advantage of their discontent to start a rebellion.
21:06What followed became known as the Malayan Emergency.
21:11It began in 1948.
21:13The MNLA targeted police stations, derailed trains, and attacked rubber plantations and tin mines, including tin dredges like this.
21:23The use of tin in canned goods generated so much money for Britain's struggling economy, the government had to do everything in their power to protect the industry.
21:32As these insurrections got more violent, Britain decided to bring in troops to defend its operations.
21:40By around 1955, many of the insurgents had been killed or captured, but the MNLA refused to give up.
21:48The British command realized that they needed to win hearts and minds, and so promised to grant independence to the country once the guerrillas were defeated.
21:58The plan worked. With the support of Malay battalions, the insurgency was crushed.
22:06And on August 31st, 1957, Britain granted Malaya its independence.
22:14In 1960, the new Malaysian government declared the emergency officially over.
22:20Throughout the conflict, the TT5 remained operational.
22:27In 1976, almost 20 years after independence, a Malaysian-owned mining corporation took control for the first time.
22:37This was a significant and symbolic step for the country.
22:40But this new era of Malaysian-run mining didn't last long.
22:47In the 1980s, a perfect storm of reduced demand and rising costs led to the complete collapse of the global tin industry.
22:56In 1982, the owners of the TT5 ceased all tin mining operations and retired the dredge.
23:04The effect was devastating for the local community. For so many years, it had been such a stable employer.
23:17After the collapse of the tin industry, most of the Malaysian tin dredges were dismantled and sold for scrap.
23:24But not the TT5. That survived.
23:27Then in 1997, it was donated to the state government so it could be turned into a historical site.
23:33A way to preserve some of the history of this region.
23:41In West Texas, near the city of El Paso, is a dilapidated ruin where hope and hardship collided.
23:55Right on the edge of town is a strange compound of single-story adobe buildings.
23:59Initially, you're thinking this might be some kind of ranch with the central space used for horses or other farm animals.
24:09But there's something odd, almost prison-like, about the layout.
24:16Over time, the role of this site would change from a place of shelter to a den of exploitation.
24:22One structure in particular symbolizes the level of mistreatment.
24:25It looks like you would have been forced to walk through this long, windowless metal tube.
24:36Hundreds of thousands of people came. They didn't know what to expect. They were often very young. They were scared.
24:43Those who arrived here did so by choice. For some, it was a decision they lived to regret.
24:54This was the start of a national program that changed the face of America forever.
24:58However, many of the people were treated like animals and faced racism from the very people they were here to help.
25:06In Texas, on the outskirts of El Paso, is a neglected structure that was supposed to deliver the dream of a better life.
25:21Yolanda Leyva is a historian at the University of Texas.
25:26She grew up near this dusty border site with a complex past.
25:30I just think of all the stories of the men that came with such hope.
25:37They went through very extensive medical tests while they were here.
25:42When first conceived, it was part of the solution to an unprecedented state crisis.
25:49The original reason this place exists dates back to the Civil War era.
25:54Of the 70,000 or so Texans that served, about 24,000 were killed outright.
26:02Suddenly, Texas had more widows and orphans than ever before.
26:07And this was well before any type of social program like Social Security.
26:13So counties would set up what were called poor farms for poor people.
26:18And basically, it provided them room and board, but they would have to work.
26:22This poor farm, which opened in 1915, catered to elderly people and children.
26:30And it was run by the O'Shea family.
26:33They called it the Rio Vista Farm.
26:37Life was tough, but for many, it was their best shot at survival.
26:42Helen O'Shea Keller would go to El Paso every Monday and go to court and see what children were being taken from their mothers.
26:52Usually because the mothers were not able to provide for their kids.
26:57And she would bring them here.
26:58So several thousand children went through this place.
27:01Helen O'Shea Keller's kindness meant Rio Vista became a beacon of hope for those that needed it.
27:10But in the early 1940s, America's involvement in a global conflict began the process of turning this site into something far more ominous.
27:20With the onslaught of World War II, there were new challenges.
27:27And one of those was related to labor.
27:31Thousands of young men were shipping abroad to fight.
27:35And American farms were facing a desperate shortage of workers.
27:38The U.S. was in danger of running low on food.
27:44And the government was forced to turn to a former rival for help.
27:49Mexico agreed to assist with a temporary worker program.
27:53They saw this as a way to assist the war effort and boost their own economy.
27:59It became known as the Bracero Program, a Spanish term meaning manual labor.
28:04They worked on farms throughout the country, making it possible for the U.S. economy to face the challenges imposed upon it by the war.
28:12When the Bracero Program first started in 1942, it was very celebrated.
28:17There were parades for the Braceros and they called them soldiers of the fields.
28:23The program was so successful, it continued even after World War II ended.
28:27By 1951, a new site was needed to house the U.S. headquarters.
28:33And Rio Vista's location next to the border made it the perfect base.
28:40Celia Castro-Burton was a secretary here when it first opened.
28:45When I started working at Rio Vista, I was 19 years old.
28:48And we were asked to ask questions of the Braceros and type the contract.
28:55The contract included like the name, the address, age, and where they wanted their money to be sent.
29:03This agreement included basic provisions for living conditions and wages, specifically 30 cents an hour for agricultural workers.
29:13People waited by the thousands at these recruitment centers, hoping for a chance to cross the border.
29:21It's estimated that some 880,000 Mexican workers were processed through this farm.
29:28But none could have predicted the hardship and trauma that awaited their arrival.
29:34It was an ordeal that began when the program first started during World War II.
29:39This hut is the most important building here because this is what the men remember.
29:48When they talk about it, they cry.
29:51In this purpose-filled metal hut, they were fumigated with toxic chemicals.
29:57This was supposedly to de-lyse the men.
30:00The men who sprayed them were instructed to spray them in their hair, to spray in their ears, to spray in their genitals.
30:07While the officials wore masks, the workers were offered no such protections.
30:15We know that it was DDT, which in the 70s was banned because it's carcinogenic.
30:23What the men always remember is that that was the beginning of feeling like they were treated like animals.
30:29At the time, the effects of DDT were not well recognized.
30:36Even so, much of what happened was kept hidden from the women working in the contract rooms.
30:41I don't believe that this was part of what they wanted to be known to the public.
30:50It wasn't until years later that I really understood and knew what was going on or what I had participated in.
30:58After being processed and fumigated, the Braceros were relocated to farms across the country.
31:05When the men left Rio Vista, their mistreatment only continued.
31:11While this program offered certain protections, the cracks would soon begin to show.
31:17In Texas is the ruin of a site used to process Mexican agricultural workers, brought to America as part of the Bracero program.
31:32The men came for a better life. The reality they found was very different.
31:36Despite the regulations, many farmers tried to get around them, providing crowded, slum-like housing or even charging people rent for lodgings that should have been free.
31:49So I have actually seen a paycheck of a Bracero that was one cent after they took away all those charges that the employer charged them for.
31:59Over time, the program began to come under fire, drawing more and more criticism for worker exploitation.
32:09It would take a tragic accident to draw national attention to the abusive Bracero program.
32:16In September 1963, 58 workers were riding on their employer's crudely made bus in Chihuahua, California.
32:26When crossing a set of railroad tracks, the makeshift bus was hit by a freight train.
32:3332 people were killed and 25 more were injured.
32:36It's said to be the most fatal car accident in all of U.S. history.
32:41The Chualar bus crash shone a light on the poor treatment of Braceros, proving that their employers did not care about their well-being, even to the point of providing safe transport.
32:53Under pressure from unions and other social welfare groups, the program was discontinued in 1964.
33:02After this, the Rio Vista Farm was no longer needed.
33:08It first passed into the hands of the local county, and then to the city of Securo.
33:13Throughout those years, the old buildings fell into ruin.
33:17But many of the men remained, and in the 1980s, where there was an amnesty program, many of the men were able to legalize their status, and that was 20 years of being here without papers.
33:33In 2023, Rio Vista Farm was designated as a National Historic Landmark, ensuring that its story will be told for future generations.
33:52The Bracero Program had a very important legacy for the United States.
34:01It saved our economy during World War II, but also the men who stayed, became U.S. citizens, and their children were born here.
34:11They have contributed so much to their communities.
34:20In northeast Italy, in the shadow of towering mountain peaks, lies the devastating outcome of Mother Nature's fury.
34:28In the foothills of the Alps, as beautiful and dramatic as the scene is, hidden among the vegetation, eerie remains begin to appear.
34:43Sat high above the town is what was once quite a grand church, but the roof is missing, and entire walls have come crashing down.
34:53So what happened?
34:56Inside the town's buildings, it's evident that whatever misfortune struck here occurred quickly, and with phenomenal force.
35:06You start to see the scraps of people's lives as furniture, shoes, clothes, and children's workbooks open as though they've just finished their homework,
35:17which suggests they could have been running for their lives.
35:20In the moment, there was panic. Everything was shaking. People could barely stand.
35:29The threat was always hanging over here. It was part of daily life.
35:34But eventually, some would pay the ultimate price.
35:36My dad, my mum, myself, my wife, and my children used to live in this house.
35:53We used to live well because we also had some farmland. We had cows.
35:57Giuseppe Bullfond was born in this rural town in 1936. For 40 years, it was the place he called home.
36:10There were two taverns and two shops. We had everything we needed to live here.
36:14This is the town of Portis. For centuries, it stood proud with a small yet thriving community.
36:24So this town is really what you would think of when you think of rural Italy.
36:28On saints' days, people would march through the town and have celebrations and festivals.
36:35It was a beautiful, if quiet, life here.
36:39But little did the residents know that disaster was just around the corner.
36:43In the centuries-old Italian town of Portis, residents lived an idyllic life.
36:55But soon, the peace would be shattered.
36:59At 9pm on May 6th, 1976, the ground beneath Giuseppe Bullfond's feet began to violently shift.
37:08Everyone came out of their homes. We were all outside.
37:12I felt the ground shaking. I couldn't walk.
37:17It was a massive 6.5-magnitude earthquake.
37:22And Portis was a little over five miles from the epicentre.
37:26Very quickly, giant cracks start to appear in the buildings.
37:30It is obvious that the place is unsafe and people are really scared.
37:37Then the second shockwave came. It was rumbling.
37:41The ground trembled for one minute.
37:45My wife came outside shouting,
37:48Come here so that we all die together, together with our children.
37:53Giuseppe and his family were fortunate to survive.
37:57Other members of the community were not so lucky.
38:00Unfortunately, six people were killed as they were trying to escape running through those narrow streets when an old house collapsed right on top of them.
38:10In addition to the town of Portis that was destroyed, over 150,000 people across the region were homeless overnight.
38:17In the aftermath, the town's residents were forced to move into temporary accommodations.
38:25When the immediate danger had passed, they returned to survey the damage.
38:30They buried the dead and tried to figure out what to do next.
38:35Many hoped they could rebuild, forget the terrible event and return to life at Portis as it had been before the earthquake.
38:42The government brought in geologists to study the space.
38:46They knew the people wanted to continue to live there.
38:49But unfortunately, the geologists knew that the town would never be safe again.
38:55The cause of the danger was a steep-sided cliff that overshadowed Portis.
39:00There was this gigantic overhang of rock and the scientists found that it had been fractured by the first earthquake and feared that if there was another one, the whole thing could come crashing down right on top of Portis.
39:16But the residents did not want to give up their homes without a fight.
39:20Tensions get very high with the government saying, you can't come home again, and the people of the town saying, no, we're coming home again, to the point of putting giant signs up saying, Portis must be reborn here.
39:34But just four months later, the residents' worst nightmares became a reality.
39:40On September 15, 1976, disaster struck yet again.
39:45At the time, Giuseppe Bulfon was in the neighbouring town, catching up with old friends.
39:52We were sitting in the Café Vecchio, in Via della Stacion, drinking.
39:58I just saw the mountain coming down.
40:01It was huge, yes, huge.
40:04Now, it's all over, I said.
40:08Thousands of tons of rock sheared off the mountain and hurtled towards the town below the mountain.
40:14with a deafening roar.
40:16The landslide smashed into the church cemetery and made it as far as the road that lies next to the town.
40:24The town is declared completely unsafe and the line is drawn.
40:29You will never go back to your homes again.
40:35Giuseppe and all the residents of Portis had no choice but to abandon their homes and move to a nearby city.
40:42Eventually, on December 15, 1978, the authorities announced that they would found a new town, Portis Nuova, New Portis, less than a mile up the road.
40:54I wanted to go back to my town. I was always here, even when I was living somewhere else. The land is calling.
41:04Some of the people that grew up there or loved old Portis still have that connection, still want to be a part of it.
41:17And while many of the homes are deemed too unsafe to enter, the gardens are still tended by some, keeping the connections to their ancestral homes alive.
41:27...
41:38Outro Josue
41:43Each nicholas
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