A Precious Day for Student Activism

During the late 1939, the Nazi occupants of the Czechoslovakia in Praque suppressed a demonstration held by students of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University. The demonstration was held to commemorate the creation of an independent Czechoslovak Republic. this demonstration resulted in Jan Opletal’s death. His funeral procession turned to yet another anti_Nazi demonstration and resulted in drastic measures being taken by the Nazis. All Czech higher education institutions were closed down, more than 1200 students were taken and sent to concentration camps, and the most hideous crime of all: nine students/professors were executed without trial on the 17th of November.

The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the Greek military junta of 1973 came to climax on November 17, with a violent crackdown and a tank crushing the gates of the university. The Day of the Greek Students is today among the official holidays in Greece.

The 1989 Praque demonstrations for International Student’s Day helped spark the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia. Struggle for Freedom and democracy Day is today marked among both the official holidays in the Czech Republic (since 2000, thanks to the efforts of the Czech Student’s Chamber of The Council of Universities) and the holidays in Slovakia.