International Students Day: A Celebration of National Freedom, Not of Multiculturalism by Josef Zbořil  •  November 17, 2021 at 10:00 am       International Students Day is not a celebration of multiculturalism, which de-nationalizes countries in favor of a usually remote, autocratic, supranational, authority, but a celebration of national freedoms by supporters of free nations whose citizens have united voluntarily. Celebrating International Students Day was delayed first in the Czech Republic, by the events of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, then in the world, in favor of celebrating the multiculturalism of foreign students. "Five years ago, on November 17, 1939, occurred the horrible massacre of Czechoslovakian students and professors by the Nazis -- a despicable mass murder that subsequent events have proved was but a part of the Nazi design to quiet forever the voices of men who considered death preferable to destruction of their freedom of belief and their right to teach that belief. ... In observing November 17 again this year as International Student's Day, American youth joins with the youth of all freedom-loving nations..." — US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 17, 1944. "Patriotism is the most natural middle level which leads man from animal selfishness to general love for people and to humanity in general." — Czech philosopher and "Father of the Nation" František Palacký, 19th century. "Mankind is nothing supranational, but a democratic organization of nations - conscious, cultural nations." — First Czechoslovak President Tomáš G. Masaryk, 1920. On November 17, 1939, the German occupation forces that ruled the Czech parts of Czechoslovakia closed universities, murdered nine student representatives, and transported 1,200 students to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1941, on the basis of these events -- thanks to Czechoslovak students supported by exiled President Edvard Beneš (pictured) -- November 17 was declared "International Students Day". (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) On November 17, 1939, the German occupation forces that ruled the Czech parts of Czechoslovakia closed universities, murdered nine student representatives, and transported 1,200 students to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1941, on the basis of these events -- thanks to Czechoslovak students supported by exiled President Edvard Beneš -- November 17 was declared "International Students Day". Celebrating it was delayed first in the Czech Republic, by the events of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, then in the world, in favor of celebrating the multiculturalism of foreign students. November 17 is the day to celebrate as the struggle of students from the coalition of anti-fascist United Nations for what U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "their freedoms of belief and their right to teach that belief," and should be commemorated and celebrated again this way worldwide. Continue Reading Article