International Students’ Day – November 17th

The 17th of November is INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ DAY, an observance of student activism throughout the world. The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 demonstrations in Prague, Czechoslovakia by Czech students against the German Nazi occupation which resulted in the killing of Jan Opletal – an aspiring medical student by Nazi soldiers. The student’s funeral procession which was held on the 15th of November led to thousands of students, who used the occasion as another anti– Nazi demonstration. In a brutal retaliation all Czech higher education institutions were closed down; Nazi troopers stormed the University of Prague, more than 1,200 students were jailed or sent to concentration camps; and nine students and professors were executed without trial two days later on the 17th of November 1939. This day has further significance for Czechs. In 1989, the 50th anniversary of these events sparked the Velvet Revolution, the beginning of the end of communist rule.