When Nazi troops executed 9 — the 1939 event International Students’ Day recalls every year

The day commemorates the events of 1939 in Prague when Nazi powers executed 9 student leaders and sent over 1,200 pupils to concentration camps.

A memorial plaque of Jan Opletal, a student of the medical faculty at the Charles University in Prague who was shot during an anti-Nazi resistance | Commons

New Delhi: The International Students’ Day is observed on 17 November each year as a global observance of student activism. Besides celebrating academic activism and promoting awareness for students’ rights, the day also aims to ensure access to education.

This day was first declared on 17 November 1941 by the International Students’ Council in London to commemorate the events of 1939 in Prague when Nazi troops had executed nine student leaders and sent over 1,200 pupils to concentration camps.

Some universities now also celebrate it as a day of multiculturalism and organise events for youth engagement.

Tragic history

On 17 November 1939, Nazi troops had stormed the University of Prague after thousands of students came down on the streets to protest against their occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The nine students who were executed on this day in Prague were — Josef Matousek, Jaroslav Klima, Jan Weinert, Josef Adamec, Jan Cerny, Marek Frauwirt, Bedrich Koukala, Vaclav Safranek and Frantisek Skorkovsky.

Besides the execution of nine students, the Nazi army had also shut down Czech universities and colleges.

In late 1939, Nazi authorities in Czechoslovakia had also suppressed a movement organised by students of the medical faculty at Charles University. This anti-Nazi resistance resulted in the death of Jan Opletal, a student. Opletal’s funeral, which took place about eight months later, became a huge protest by students against the occupation.

But the Nazis had hit back. They not only closed universities and colleges, but also executed student leaders without trial and sent academic activists to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Athens Polytechnic uprising

Another large student movement took place on 17 November 1973 when pupils of the Athens Polytechnic went on a strike against the military regime in Greece.

Greece had been under a dictatorial military rule since 21 April 1967. The regime had abolished civil rights, dissolved political parties and exiled, imprisoned as well as tortured citizens.

The students’ movement began on 14 November 1973, and escalated to an open anti-junta revolt, finally ending in bloodshed in the early morning of 17 November when military tanks were sent through the gates of the Polytechnic to quell the rebellion.

In Greece, 17 November is also marked as a holiday for all educational establishments.