WHY?

In 1939 there was a student demonstration against the Nazi occupation. After this demonstration, on November 17 the Nazis closed all Czech universities and colleges, sent over 1200 Czech students to concentration camps, and executed 9 of them. In memory of this, November 17 is marked as International Students Day. 50 years later in 1989 students organized a demonstration to commemorate International Students Day, but the demonstration turned into one against the Communist government. November 1989 marked the beginning of the Velvet Revolution. Together these two events created a significant movement in the fight for freedom and democracy for the Czech people.