The Narvik War and Peace Centre is partner in a project about forced Czech labourers in Norway during World War II (WWII). The project lead is the Czech Academy of Sciences and NTNU is also a partner. The project is funded by the EEA and Norway grants 2014-2021.
The project aims to create a working network of experts and institutions in the Czech Republic and Norway, working with World War II. During the war, Norway became the place of forced mobility of Czechoslovak citizens – in 1939, hundreds of Jewish refugees found temporary asylum there, after the occupation of Norway 1,300 Czechs became forced labourers (specially in Trondheim and Narvik region) through the German occupation authorities and the Organization Todt. More than 10,000 Czechoslovak citizens (especially those of German descent or from the region of Silesia) were sent to Norway as Wehrmacht soldiers, and several Czechoslovak individuals fought also in Norway on the side of the Allies.
These little-known stories of the Czechoslovak-Norwegian relations will be mapped and presented in the form of scholarly meetings, exhibition and publications both to the Czech and Norwegian scholarly and general public.
Further information can be found at https://noraci.cz/en/front-page/
The project leader is dr. Zdenko Maršálek with the participation of dr. Vendula Vlková Hingarová, prof. Hans Otto Frøland, dr. Gunnar D. Hatlehol, Gaute Rønnebu and Eystein Markusson
