Artigenda
International Students’ Day
When: Annually, November 17.
Every year on November 17, we reflect on an event in history that took place on November 17, 1937 in Prague. On International Students’ Day, we not only reflect on the multiculturalism of international students. We also reflect on the storming of Prague University on that day.
Origin
The storming of the University of Prague, Charles University (Univerzita Karlova), was a result of student protests following the deaths of labourer and Sokol-turner Václav Sedláček (April 22, 1917 – October 28, 1937) and student Jan Opletal (December 31, 1914 – or January 1, 1915 – November 11, 1939). They had died during earlier protests against the demonstrations against the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. After the Munich Agreement, Adolf Hitler decided not only to take the Protektorat Böhmen and Mähren (Bohemia and Moravia) but actually to occupy the whole country. With this, Czechoslovakia lost its independence.
In a reaction to the death of the two, more demonstrations followed and the Germans struck back hard. Students were rounded up and leaders of the resistance were killed (nine in total). 1,200 students were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After that, all universities and colleges in the country were closed down.
It all started on October 28 with a demonstration directed against the presence of Germans among members of the Medical Faculty of Charles University. On that day, people normally commemorated the country’s independence in 1918. During this demonstration, Opletal and Sedláček were shot. Sedláček died on the spot, Opletal died on 11 November. His body was transported to Moravia four days later for burial. When a large group of students arrived there, a new demonstration ensued.
On November 17, trials began against the leaders of the protests. These were not only students. Professors were also found guilty and executed the same day. These were: Josef Matoušek (lecturer), Jaroslav Klíma (student), Jan Weinert (student), Josef Adamec (student), Jan Černý (student), Marek Frauwirth (student), Bedřich Koula (student) Václav Šafránek (student), František Skorkovský (student).
The first commemoration
Interestingly, the first commemoration of these events did not take place in a capacity as it does today. The first commemoration took place by Czechoslovakian troops who were in exile in the UK in 1940. Admittedly, these were former students. There was just no direct link with (higher) education, as there is today. Also, the relationship between international education is present today and was not the case then.
That relationship with international students is logically explicable. In later commemorations during World War II, others also joined the commemorations. These were former students from other parts of the world. In some cases, they had a similar perception of what happened within (higher) education. Consider, for example, military personnel from France who joined the commemorations in 1941. The idea arose to make November 17 an international day of remembrance, linked not only to the horrors in Prague.
Polytechnic uprising
It is not just about these victims, by the way. The victims of another student protest are also commemorated on this day. Then it concerns a demonstration that took place on November 17, 1973, in Athens. We know this protest under the Polytechnic uprising.
This was a demonstration that began on November 14, 1973, with Athens National Technical University being the scene of action that was brutally suppressed on November 17 at the behest of the country’s military junta. Although the demonstration was organised by students, others eventually joined it. Think workers and peasants.
It even took a tank to restore calm to the university. Not without reason, because during the period when the military junta was active (1967 – 1974), this may be considered one of the most obvious rejections of the regime. The goal was not achieved and 40 people were killed. It was not possible to identify the bodies in 16 cases. Besides the dead, another 2,000 people were injured. Although there are sources that assume a figure of 1,103 people were injured.
The end of the demonstration was on the same day as International Students’ Day now takes place. The events only started earlier. Annually, the events are still commemorated and it is not International Students’ Day in Greece, but a day when people mainly look back at three days of protest and the way this protest was eventually beaten to pieces.
