Na staveništi za polárním kruhem
At a Construction Site beyond the Arctic Circle: Two

Thousand Czechs Subjected to Forced Labour in Norway during World War Two

Summary/Abstract: Milan Poledna was preparing to study medicine, but instead of university, the Labour Office in Olomouc sent him to forced labour at the so-called Polarbereich – Einsatz Nord-Norwegen, located far beyond the Polar Arctic in Narvik, in the autumn of 1942. Due to censorship, in the letters he sent to his parents he consistently described it as “an unknown place”, and it was only much later that his family learned about his forced labour in northern Norway. Poledna’s story, just like those of other Czechs in Norway, has only recently opened a new chapter in Czech-Norwegian wartime relations.

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