STUDENTS' DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 269, 12 November 1943, Page 2

STUDENTS' DAY

CZECH MARTYRDOM ANNIVERSARY THIS MONTH Next Wednesday, November 17, International Students' Day will be observed by universities in nearly every democratic country in the world. The history behind the anniversary goes back to the early years of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, when the invaders closed first the secondary schools, then the universities and later the primary schools. In their resistance the Czech university students opposed hopeless odds. The students of one of the country's great seats of learning had been living in a modern hostel built by the Czechoslovakia!! Government in a suburb of Prague to house those who came from outside the city. It was there that Jan Opletal, student leader, was shot by the Nazis. On the day of his burial, his fellow-students, who denionstrated and sang the Czech national anthem, were collected together, taken to a football ground in Prague, lined up, stripped of their clothes and shot one by one. There were 120 of these students, all aged from 18 to 24. The day of the shooting was November 17, 1941. Last year, people in Britain set up an International Council of Students, when 15 nations were represented. Meetings were held at Oxford, Birmingham and Liverpool. One of the biggest meetings was in the Albert Hall, London, where the Czechoslovak president, Dr. Benes, gave an address in the presence of members of the British Government. Reference to the demonstrations in England was made to-day by a Czech refugee in Auckland, who said the idea of perpetuating the martyrdom of Czech students, who died in defence of the ideals of free education. originated in Great Britain. Surely such demonstrations, he added, were not being held for the sake of temporary relief of indignation against the Germans. The German genius Goethe had said that a few centuries might have to pass before there would be sufficient spiritual accomplishments and culture among the Germans to enable one to say that it was a long time since they were barbarians. It would be just as well to retain in our minds what Goethe had said of his own people, along with the actions of his successors in 1941 in Prague. ______