The exhibition The Story of My Father by Czech-Finnish artist Petr Řehor and Finnish photographer Paulina Pasanen will open on 16 January 2025 in the gallery of Kladno Castle by Prague and will be open until 16 March 2025. The exhibition artistically presents the story of Josef Řehoře, who was deployed as forced labour in […]
Explore the stories of Czechs in forced labour in Norway. Download We would like to thank the descendants of the Noraci and especially Mr. Jar. Šimr, the last Czech survivor of forced labour in Norway, for their warm cooperation.
We have received the sad news that Mr. Jaromír Šimr - the last living surviving survivor of wartime Norway - died at the beginning of November 2024 at the age of 101. It was an honour to have worked with Mr. Šimr. We will not forget his colourful story and the joy in his eyes […]
In August 2020, Anežka M. visited us and brought several war pictures from her grand-grandfather, who was an OT forced laborer in the Alta area during the war. He was there with six other Czechs. He also came to inner Finnmark and met the local population with whom he took pictures. You can see the […]
The National Archives of Norway in Oslo recently made archival documents from World War II available. A central file of forced deployed foreigners in Norway was found among the materials of the German occupation authorities. 1534 personal cards from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were found in the file cabinet, which register a total of 1366 […]
Petr Řehoř is a painter and has lived in Finland since 1975. He is preparing an art project that themes the story of his father Josef Řehoř, who was sent during the war on forced labor in Trondheim. Finnish photographer Pauliina Pasanen is also collaborating on the exhibition project. Josef Řehoř (1921 - 1973) graduated from […]
Our project based on Czech-Norwegian war relations was presented on March 6, 2020 at a scientific conference in Munich as part of the 26th meeting with lecturers in Czech studies. The event was attended by over 60 experts from Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The meeting was organized by the Collegium Carolinum Science Center in […]
In September 2019, the researchers met with Mr. Švec from Havlíčkův Brod, who organized joint meetings of these ex-forced labourers after 1989. The last meeting took place in 2005. Meetings were attended by these so called Noráci and their family members. Mr. Švec still keeps in his personal archive a number of documentary materials from meetings, […]
A series of lectures on relations between the Czech Republic and Scandinavia during World War II begins 4.3. at Charles University in Prague. The lectures will be led by members of a research team that focuses on the issues of forced labor in Norway. Lectures are offered as part of an selection subject for students at Charles […]
A professional colloquium on the topic of forced labor in Scandinavia was planned on 3 April 2020 at the Faculty of Arts, at Charles University in Prague. Due to pandemic measures, Czech-Norwegian researchers could not attend and are postponed until the autumn of 2020.
The March issue of the Czech historical journal "Dějiny a současnost" has just been published. Our team participated in the preparation of thematic articles on forced labor for the Third Reich. The article "Beyond the Arctic Circle" comes with the first results about the Czechs in Norway during World War II. The article "From Todt's organization […]
The daughter of Josef Lébl from Prague-West keeps her father's suitcase from the war in the attic of the family house. It is full of memories from Norway. It contains postcards, books, maps, diaries and letters from home, even a birthday telegram from his Norwegian friends addressed to a camp in Hemne near Trondheim. An incredible treasure! […]
V rámci kurzu o Česko-skandinávských vztazích studenti UK pátrají po osudech nasazených v Norsku. Simona Kloučková hledá informace o mužích s příjmením Svoboda, Václav Křenek po nasazených z jižních Čech. Tamara Čekelská pátrá po mužích slovenského původu. Vendula Hojková si vybrala k pátrání muže, kteří se narodili stejný den jako ona. Gabriela Králová pátrá po kamarádech Jana Šefla z Hvožďan a Jana Novotného, kteří o nich píší ve […]
Petr Řehoř is a painter and has lived in Finland since 1975. He is preparing an art project that themes the story of his father Josef Řehoř, who was sent during the war on forced labor in Trondheim. Finnish photographer Pauliina Pasanen is also collaborating on the exhibition project. Josef Řehoř (1921 - 1973) graduated from […]
In October 2019 we launched the test website NORACI.CZ. The site is planned to be fully operational at the turn of 2019/2020.
