After nine o'clock the celebrations began with the traditional remembrance of the students of the Hlavkova Dormitory who gave their lives for the freedom of the nation in 1939. Dozens of people remembered the bravery of the students who did not hesitate to resist the Nazi occupation. During the programme, speeches were made by the Chairman of the Foundation Prof. Václav Pavlíček, a representative of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters, former President of the Czech Republic Prof. Václav Klaus, Vice-Rector of the CTU Ing. Radek Holý, Ph.D. , Rector of Charles University prof. Tomáš Zima and Ing. Michal Farník, Chairman of the Student Chamber of the Council of Universities.
Rector of CTU doc. Vojtěch Petráček did not attend the commemorative meeting to honour the memory of students murdered by fascists in 1939 and to remember the courage of students in 1989 at Hlávka College due to illness. "However, I watched it on television and as the rector of the CTU I must strongly distance myself from what was said in some of the speeches, especially from the statements of former President Václav Klaus," said doc. Vojtěch Petráček.
The commemorative act continued with the laying of wreaths accompanied by choirs and with the participation of a ceremonial military unit. Afterwards, a procession organized by the Student Chamber of the Council of Universities went to Žitná Street to the memorial plaque of Jan Opletal and Václav Sedláček.
The main programme of the celebrations began with the singing of the student anthem Gaudeamus Igitur at Albertov, from where the student procession marched into the centre of Prague 32 years ago. On the stage were also the rectors Prof. Tomáš Zima, Prof. Martin Bareš from Masaryk University and the Vice-Rector of CTU Ing. Radek Holý, Ph. D.
The rectors of the Czech Rectors' Conference also paid tribute to the memory of 17 November on Národní třída. The President of the Czech Conference of Rectors, Prof. Martin Bareš, together with other rectors, laid a bouquet of flowers and lit candles at the 17 November memorial plaque.
Vice-rector for Quality Management of CTU Ing. Radek Holý, Ph.D., also honoured at the memorial plaque in Karolína Světlá Street the memory of student Václav Šaffránek, who was executed on 17 November 1939. He was the youngest of the nine executed students and a student of the CTU, specifically the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Václav Šaffránek volunteered to join the army during the Munich Crisis, and from the summer of 1939 he was a liaison of the resistance organisation Defence of the Nation. In the autumn of 1939, he began studying civil engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague and became a registrar of the Union of Czech Students in Bohemia. He studied at the university for only about six weeks of his life. On 17 November 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo at 2 a.m. and executed without trial in the Ruzyně barracks the same day.
A reverent commemoration - 17 November 1939 - 1941 "We Will Not Forget" was held in the Ruzyně Barracks from 11.00 a.m., organized by the Association of Military and War Veterans, the Association of Domestic Resistance and Partisans, the Association of the Czech National Uprising and the Club of Citizens Expelled in 1938 from the Czech Borderlands in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic and the General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic. On behalf of the CTU, the commemorative act was attended by the Vice-Rector for Science, Creative Activities and Doctoral Studies, prof. Ing. Zbyněk Škvor, CSc.
At 7 p.m., this year's celebrations of the Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy and the International Students' Day ended with a traditional concert in the Bethlehem Chapel, organized by the CTU in Prague and the Josef, Maria and Zdeňka Hlávka Foundation. The concert was opened with a speech by the Vice-Rector for Quality Management of CTU Ing. Radek Holý, Ph.D., and Prof. Václav Pavlíček, Chairman of the Foundation. Compositions by Antonín Dvořák were performed by the Charles University Choir and Orchestra with conductor Haig Utidjian.
All photos you can find here.
Photos from the concert you can find here.
Photo, source: Jiří Ryszawy
