Your trusted source

International Students' Day is an international observance of student community, held annually on November 17. Originally commemorating the Nazi German storming of Czech universities in 1939 and the subsequent killing and sending of students to concentration camps, a number of universities now mark it, sometimes on a day other than November 17, for a nonpolitical celebration of the multiculturalism of their international students.

The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the killing of Jan Opletal and worker Václav Sedláček as well as against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the execution of nine student leaders, over 1,200 students sent to concentration camps (mainly Sachsenhausen concentration camp) and the closure of all Czech universities and colleges. By this time Czechoslovakia no longer existed, as it was divided by the Nazi Germany into Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovak Republic with puppet Catholic-fascist government.

During 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 the 28th of October to commemorate the anniversary of the independence of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918).

During this demonstration the student Jan Opletal was shot and died from wounds on the 11th of November. On the 15th of November his body was meant to be transported from Prague back to his home in Moravia. His funeral procession consisted of thousands of students, who turned this event into an anti-Nazi demonstration. However, this resulted in drastic measures being taken by the Nazis. All Czech higher education institutions were closed down, more than 1,200 students were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and nine students and professors were executed without trial on the 17th of November. Due to this, 17 November was chosen as International Students’ Day.

The 17th of November was first marked as International Students' Day in 1941 in London by the International Students' Council (which had many refugee members) in agreement with the Allies, and the tradition has been kept up by the successor International Union of Students, which together with the National Unions of Students in Europe and other groups has been lobbying to make the day an official United Nations observance.