The bridge over the River Kwai (located in the city of Kanchanaburi) was only part of the so-called “death railway”, a railway route extending for more than four hundred kilometers (connecting Thailand with Burma).

When Japanese troops occupied the area in the early 1940s, Japanese strategists decided to use prisoners of war to build this strategic railway line for them. Prisoners who included: Americans, Australians, Dutch and English in inhuman conditions began to build a bridge and a railway line.

I will not write about the terrifying and shocking realities of forced labor camps because we know them from our own history. An additional element causing suffering and causing death was a very difficult climate and landform features. No machines were used to build the route in the jungle, the only “machines” were elephants. Extremly hard work in extremely adverse conditions, the brutality of the Japanese and hunger ration caused death of many prisoners.

Returning to the history of the bridge, when it was finished, an Allied aircraft bombed it. The effect of the work of thousands of slave prisoners was destroyed. These tragic moments are well described in the film, which surely everyone knows and watched more than once. After the war, the ruins of the bridge were rebuilt and a museum and cemetery were established in Kanchanaburi.

The bridge itself today resembles a huge bazaar, where souvenirs related to its history are sold and the number of visitors is huge.