GENK, Belgium – Genk, the former heart of coal industry in the Belgian province of Limburg, has held an event to mark 70 years of the presence of its Ukrainian community.
The special event, hosted by Genk Mayor Wim Dries and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Belgium Mykola Tochytskyi, was held on the evening of Oct. 19 in a former coal mining industry headquarters building.
The event featured a special exhibition by Ukrainian artist Roman Minin, and posters dedicated to the history of the Ukrainian-Belgian relationship. The guest of honor was the star Ukrainian soccer player Ruslan Malinovskiy, who has been playing for soccer club Racing Club Genk for the last three years.
Dries praised the Ukrainian community, saying it was “exemplary.”
“If you look at how the Ukrainian community has developed, for me it’s a very good example of development for Genk, not only in the mines but also for the culture of our city,” Dries said.
“What is important for me as mayor is that today we’re together not only because of 70 years of history, but mostly because of looking forward how we, together with Ukrainian community in Genk, will further build our city.”
Ambassador Tochytskyi said that Ukrainians moved to Belgium to build their future for several reasons. He named the Second World War, Soviet repression, and the Holodomor artificial famine, which was created by the Soviet authorities.
“All these tragedies effected Ukrainians. Due to (Genk’s) high industrial potential, it was a place for them, hardworking people, who contributed to the industry and image of the region.”
The ambassador also recalled the discovery in the 19th century by the Belgian coal industry of deposits of anthracite coal in the east of Ukraine, in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
“The (Belgians) invested and helped to create European-style coal mines in the city of Lisichansk, which today still has thousands of buildings built by Belgium.”
Many Ukrainians, mostly from western Ukraine, who ended up in Belgium in the mid 1940s worked in the province of Limburg in the coal mines. Many of their stories are similar.
One Belgian woman of Ukrainian origin, Hannah Shpynda Dybajlo, told the Kyiv Post that her parents were taken from Ukraine to Germany during World War II to work when she was young. Hanna was born in Germany, and then the family later moved to Belgium from Germany, when she was four years old.
“Here we were happy, here we got every opportunity, and I studied French here and became a teacher, but I did not forget Ukrainian. My parents taught me Ukrainian songs, history, legends, poems. Their love for Ukraine was unlimited. I inherited it.”
Hannah’s husband, Bohdan Dybajlo said his father, who was a professor in L’viv, had to flee the city because of the Soviets.
“When the Soviets came to Galicia in 1941, my father knew that his life was in danger because all of the intelligentsia were killed or sent to Siberia,” he said.
“I was born in Ukraine in 1941 and I was only two years old when my parents had to flee, through Austria, Germany and then to Belgium. For a Ukrainian here there was one possibility – to work in the mines. But they were happy because they could freely speak, freely express their thoughts.”
Hannah and Bohdan met at a Ukrainian summer camp in Belgium and have been married for 53 years.
They have two children who also speak Ukrainian.
