Neznámý příběh českého exilu: Josef Kučík a Sdružení Lidé dobré vůle v Západní Austrálii, 1950–1969

The number of Czech and Slovak post-February (1948) exiles in Australia, according to the Australian national census of 1954, amounted to some 10 to 12 thousand people referred to as displaced persons. The rather high number was mainly due to the fact that Australia offered the shortest repatriation waiting time and, at least at the turn of the 1940s, actively fostered immigration from Europe. For that purpose the Australian government launched a media campaign that found its echo primarily in the refugee camps in Germany and Austria. The group of Czech post-February (1948) exiles, numbering some 400-500 persons in the 1950s, was developing rather separately (perhaps even in voluntary isolation) from the main exile centers. The above group in Australian exile faced many personal, collective, organizational, financial and political controversies and problems. In the fall of 1969 the first stage of Czech and Slovak emigration to Western Australia was closed and another stage started in connection with the new wave of post-August (1968) exiles.