Know the reason behind celebrating International Students’ Day on Nov. 17

CAIRO – 17 November 2021: The world celebrates International Students’ Day on November 17 every year.

It is the day set by the World Student Union to denounce the storming of all universities by Hitler's Nazi forces and the arrest and murdering of thousands of students in 1939.

The protest - ayyamasriya

On November 13, 1939, a group of students decided to mobilize a march denouncing German Nazism in Prague.

Jean Oplatel - ayyamasriya

At that time, the Nazi forces confronted this student march, which resulted in the killing of the student Jean Oplatel and led to an escalation of events.

The protests increased, prompting the Nazis to close all academic institutes and institutions of higher education. The German army executed 9 prisoners, and deported 1,200 students to Nazi concentration camps, exterminating them in a group massacre on November 17, 1939.

Following this incident and after the end of World War II, the International Student Union Council, which convened in London in 1941, decided to adopt the memory of the mass killing of students on November 17, as International Students’ Day.

The World Student Union celebrates this anniversary annually to become a day against imperialist wars and for peace, justice, freedom, solidarity and liberation from colonialism.