Jindrich Marco

Jindrich Marco was a distinguished Czech photographer, known for documenting the struggles of post-World War II Europe, as well as the creation of the new country Israel. (Marco was Jewish and spent the last part of the war in an internment camp.) But there is one photograph Marco took that remains a huge mystery.

Marco spent seven years of forced labor in the uranium mines for taking an unflattering picture of Czechoslovak president Klement Gottwald. We'll let that sink in.

Seven years! In the uranium mines! For taking a photo!

Which begs the question, how unflattering was it actually? What did it depict? Surely Marco did not have access to see Gottwald... naked? (Although that would make some story!) Maybe he caught the president in the middle of some unbecoming act... like picking his nose. We're just guessing here, as all evidence has been destroyed. Marco himself passed away in 2000, so we'll likely never know.

Still, his story makes us fearful for the days when showing the nation's leaders in an unflattering light leads to cruel punishment.

But that's just unique to communist countries, right?