Jan Antonin Bata cleared definitively of collaboration during war

The late Czech-born industrialist Jan Antonin Bata has been cleared definitively of collaboration with the Nazis. In 1947 a Czechoslovak court found Bata guilty in absentia of failing to join the anti-Nazi resistance. That judgment was overturned by a Prague court earlier this year, when the file was handed over to the state attorney’s office; it said on Thursday it was shelving the matter, as no crime had been committed.

Jan Antonin Bata was the step-brother of Tomas Bata, founder of the shoe empire of the same name. After fleeing the Nazis, he settled in Brazil, where he established a number of towns.