Czechs mark 18 years of freedom and democracy

November 17th is a state holiday in the Czech Republic, marking the country’s return to freedom and democracy. Eighteen year ago this day an attack by riot police against demonstrating students on Prague’s Narodni Trida sparked mass protests that led to the fall of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. Leading politicians, cultural figures and members of the public visited memorials to the victims of communism on Wenceslas Square, Narodni Trida and other sites in the Czech Republic to lay flowers and light candles in memory of those who fought against oppression.

The commemorative ceremonies are also linked to an earlier anniversary – a student march in 1939 held in protest against the Nazi occupation that was brutally suppressed. The protest served as a pretext for more reprisals against Czech intellectuals. The Nazis raided a university campus on the night of November 17, nine students were executed without a trial and 1200 were deported to the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. All Czech universities were then closed.