The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the killings of Jan Opletal and worker Václav Sedláček. The Nazis rounded up the students, murdered nine student leaders and sent over 1,200 students to concentration camps, mainly Sachsenhausen. They subsequently closed all Czech universities and colleges
The nine students and professors executed on 17 November in Prague were:

Josef Matoušek (historian and associate professor; participated in the organisation of Opletal's funeral)
Jaroslav Klíma (student of law; Chairman of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia, requested the release of students arrested by the Gestapo during Opletal's funeral)
Jan Weinert (student of Bohemistics and Germanistics; requested the release of students arrested by the Gestapo during Opletal's funeral)
Josef Adamec (student of law; secretary of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia)
Jan Černý (student of medicine; requested the release of students arrested by the Gestapo during Opletal's funeral)
Marek Frauwirth (student of economics; as an employee of the Slovak embassy in Prague, he was issuing false passports to Jews trying to flee from the Nazis)
Bedřich Koula (student of law; secretary of the Association of Czech students in Bohemia)
Václav Šafránek (student of architecture; record-keeper of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia)
František Skorkovský (student of law; Director of a Committee of the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants, Chairman of the Foreign Department of the National Association of Czech Students in Bohemia and Moravia)