PT Journal
AU Sklenarova, S
TI Compatriots in Belgian Mining Village Winterslag in the Interwar Period in Memories of Karel Svoboda
SO Historica Olomucensia
PY 2017
BP 131
EP 147
VL 52
IS 1
DI 10.5507/ho.2017.006
DE Belgium; mining; Kempen; Winterslag; Czechoslovak compatriots; interwar period
AB Czechoslovak compatriots in Belgium in interwar period were primarily situated in mining areas. The development of mining in Belgium largely depended on foreign workers because the country did not dispose of enough labour force willing to work in this profession. One of the areas, where a great number of compatriots lived, was the region of Kempen. Here, next to coal mine Winterslag, new residential districts aroused, which served to accommodate both home and foreign workers and their families. Karel Vaclav Svoboda was born there in 1926 and spent his childhood in this place. The outbreak of the Second World War forced his family to leave his, until that time, only home and return to homeland that he did not know. In Winterslag he also visited a Czechoslovak foreign school, which was established in 1932 and enabled to children of compatriots not to forget their native tongue. His parents were active in Sokol and compatriotic activities.
ER