The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the
University of Prague after demonstrations against the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the killings of
Jan Opletal and worker
Václav Sedláček. The Nazis rounded up the students, murdered nine student leaders and sent over 1,200 students to concentration camps, mainly
Sachsenhausen. They subsequently closed all Czech universities and colleges. By this time Czechoslovakia no longer existed, as it had been divided into the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the
Slovak Republic under a fascist puppet government. In late 1939 the Nazi authorities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia suppressed a demonstration in Prague held by students of the Medical Faculty of
Charles University. The demonstration was held on 28 October to commemorate the anniversary of the independence of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918). During this demonstration the student Jan Opletal was shot, and later died from his injuries on 11 November. On 15 November his body was supposed to be transported from Prague to his home in
Moravia. His funeral procession consisted of thousands of students, who turned the event into an anti-Nazi demonstration. However, the Nazi authorities took drastic measures in response, closing all Czech higher education institutions, arresting more than 1,200 students, who were then sent to concentration camps, executing nine students and professors without trial on 17 November. Historians speculate that the Nazis granted permission for the funeral procession already expecting a violent outcome, in order to use that as a pretext for closing down universities and purging anti-nazi dissidents. The nine students and professors executed on 17 November in Prague were: •
Josef Matoušek (historian and
associate professor; participated in the organisation of Opletal's funeral) •
Jaroslav Klíma (student of law; Chairman of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia, requested the release of students arrested by the
Gestapo during Opletal's funeral) •
Jan Weinert (student of
Bohemistics and
Germanistics; requested the release of students arrested by the Gestapo during Opletal's funeral) •
Josef Adamec (student of law; secretary of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia) •
Jan Černý (student of medicine; requested the release of students arrested by the Gestapo during Opletal's funeral) •
Marek Frauwirth (student of economics; as an employee of the Slovak embassy in Prague, he was issuing false passports to Jews trying to flee from the Nazis) •
Bedřich Koula (student of law; secretary of the Association of Czech students in Bohemia) •
Václav Šafránek (student of architecture; record-keeper of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia) •
František Skorkovský (student of law; Director of a Committee of the
Confédération Internationale des Étudiants, Chairman of the Foreign Department of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia) An initial idea to commemorate the atrocities inflicted on students in German-occupied Czechoslovakia was discussed among Czechoslovak Army troops in England in 1940. A small group of soldiers, former elected student officials, decided to renew the Central Association of Czechoslovak Students (USCS) which had been disbanded by the German Protectorate in Czechoslovakia. The idea of commemorating the 17 November tragedy was discussed with the British
National Union of Students of England and Wales and other foreign students fighting the Nazis from England. With the support of
Edvard Beneš, President-in-Exile of Czechoslovakia, the USCS was reestablished in London on 17 November 1940, one year after the events at the Czech universities, with the following members: •
Václav Paleček, Chairman •
Čeněk Adamec, Vice Chairman •
Karel Macháček, Vice Chairman •
Bohuslav Šulc, Secretary General •
Božetěch Dubový, Treasurer •
Pavel Kavan, Chairman of the Foreign Section •
Lubor Zink, Chairman of the Cultural Section •
Leopold Rozbořil, Chairman of the Organization Section •
Jiří Bleier, Chairman of the Social Section •
Milan Smutný, Chairman of the High School Section •
Gustav Galko Throughout 1941 efforts were made to convince students of other nations to acknowledge 17 November as a day of commemoration, celebrating and encouraging resistance against the Nazis and the fight for freedom and democracy in all nations. These negotiating efforts were mostly carried out by Zink, Paleček, Kavan and
Lena Chivers, Vice President of the NUS. Fourteen countries eventually agreed and signed the following proclamation:We, students of Great Britain and its territories and India, North and South America, the USSR, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, China, Holland, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and all free nations, to honour and commemorate the tortured and executed students who were the first to raise their voices to reject Nazi oppression and condemn the occupation of 1939, proclaim November 17 as International Students' Day.The inaugural meeting was held in London's
Caxton Hall on 16 November 1941, with support from President Beneš. The proclamation was read and accepted by all attendees, among them representatives of all governments who were in exile in London. The meeting was presided over by USCS Chairman Paleček; the key speakers were
Sergej Ingr, Czechoslovak Secretary of Defence; Lena Chivers and
Elizabeth Shields-Collins of the UK;
Olav Rytter of Norway;
Claude Guy of France, A. Vlajčić representing Yugoslavia. On 17 November 1941, members of the USCS Executive Committee had a long audience with President Beneš, and similar meetings with the President took place annually on 17 November throughout WWII. The BBC's Czechoslovak department prepared a special report for 17 November which was broadcast to occupied Czechoslovakia. Many British universities interrupted their schedule to commemorate the events in Prague two years earlier, by reading the proclamation of 17 November. Among them were
Manchester,
Reading,
Exeter,
Bristol,
Aberystwyth,
Leicester,
London,
Holloway College,
Bournemouth,
Sheffield,
King's College London,
Birmingham,
Leeds,
Liverpool,
Bangor,
Cardiff,
Glasgow, and
Edinburgh. During the war
Oxford University extended assistance to the closed Charles University, allowing dozens of Czechoslovak students in exile to graduate. ==Observances==