TRAGIC MEMORY TODAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 45, 17 November 1941, Page 7

TRAGIC MEMORY TODAY

Call For University Demonstrations

MURDERS OF CZECHS The National Union of Students of Great Britain, in collaboration with the Czechoslovak Union of Students and with the support of the Czechoslovak Government in London, is arranging for student demonstrations iu universities throughout the world today. The following statement has been issued by the Czechoslovak Students’ Union and received in Wellington: — “From the earliest days of the Nazi oppression in Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak students have taken the lead in organizing mass resistance against the Hitlerite tyranny. In cooperation with the other anti-Nazl elements, the students secretly distributed printed material and information whicn the Nazi-controlled Press was withholding, and planned acts of sabotage in conjunction with workers. “After the outbreak of the war between Poland and Germany, many students illegally crossed the frontiers to join the Czechoslovak army in Poland, Those who remained behind continued their dangerous work of steeling the people everywhere in their resistance against Fascism. Danger to Oppressors.

“In the begiuiung of the university year iu October. 1939, the students concentrated in the big cities became a great danger to the Nazis. On October 28 — Czechoslovak Independence Day—students and workers organized a great demonstration, which almost reached a revolutionary character, especially iu Prague. “To maintain order, the German police and army machinegunned the people while they were singing the National Anthem:

“Among the wounded was a medical student, Jan Oppetal, who died soon after. Thousands of students took part in his funeral service, and in demonstrations which followed, and many more were killed or arrested.

“The Germans, well aware of the significance of an active young intelligentsia in an oppressed nation, took the opportunity for drastic and barbaric intervention. During the night of November 17 the colleges were surrounded. At dawn, in front of 1000 students, nine leading officials of the National Union of Students were shot. “The universities were shut, and most of the students were taken to concentration camps, where the tortures and cruelties and abuses of girl students were dreadful beyond belief. Those who were not arrested were taken to Germany for forced labour. Resistance Has Increased.

“The Germans expected to break down the spirit of the nation by the extermination of its young university generation; on the contrary, the nation’s resistance has increased. Vou Neurath has had to be superseded by Heydrich. The students who remain are playing a most active part. But the National Union of Czechoslovak Students has come into being again iu England, where an executive committee of student soliders, all of whom have held office in their own country, has been set up and is recognized by the Czechoslovak Government in London. Many of its members have won high decorations in the Army and Air Force. “It is this committee which, with the co-operation of the N.U.S., and other students’ organizations, is arranging for November 17 to be as widely, commemorated as possible.”